Chapter 24: Wednesday, Sept. 5

I almost rolled back over and went back to sleep after killing the alarm, but the thought I needed to do something this morning kept nagging at me.

I could hear the sounds of Kacie in the bathroom as I tried to remember what it was. My subconscious must have been more aware because I pulled some gym shorts and a T-shirt out of my dresser and put them on before staggering to the kitchen.

“Going to do your running before school?” Mom asked as I rummaged around for something resembling food.

Oh, yeah. The 50 gassers I had for breaking curfew.

“I probably should,” I said. “Or at least get enough that I can finish this evening after practice.”

A quick bite of breakfast had me edging toward functionality. I returned to my room to get some school clothes and my backpack, then headed to school.

I pulled into the senior parking lot a little after 7 and could see the freshman teams already on the field for their practice. After dropping my things at my locker, I hit the field trying to figure what pace I needed to maintain to get all 50 gassers done in time to shower before first period.

That was too much math for this early in the morning. I just started running and hoped I’d be able to keep an accurate count.

I hit 25 and noticed the segment clocks indicated the freshmen still had at least 10 minutes of their workout remaining. Pushing a little harder, I had 20 more done when the coaches whistled them up to run their gassers. If I couldn’t run my last five before they did 10, I probably didn’t need to be out here.

OK, I probably didn’t need to be out here to begin with, but that was beside the point.

I finished up and was jogging toward the locker room door when Coach Tucker called out to me.

“Get ‘em all, Robinson?” he asked.

“Yes, sir, Coach,” I wheezed, hoping I had counted correctly.

“Go get your shower and don’t be late to class,” he said. “I’ll see you fourth period.”

“Yes, sir,” I said, still trying to catch my breath.

I showered quickly, noticing that my hair had grown out enough to make shampooing worthwhile. I’d have to do that this evening and just rinsed it real good. It still wouldn’t be long enough to comb for a few more weeks.

The morning classes went well enough, though I did have to leave my seat a few times to stretch my legs to stave off cramps. The only assignments were some reading in Western Civ and English IV. I could knock those out during lunch, but I didn’t really want to rush through or skip a meal to do so.

Athletic period was flexibility exercises and a final review of the game plan. I seriously doubted I’d see much playing time unless it was another blowout and/or we had a bunch of guys cramp up again.

Morgan was again waiting when I exited the locker room for lunch.

“How’d your morning go?” I asked as she looped an arm through mine and turned toward the cafeteria.

“Pretty good,” Morgan said. “Coach Tucker wants me to stay after practice tonight to help with a study hall they’re starting for the players on the three-week report. We’ll just do it once this week, but it may be two or three nights a week as we go along.”

“Are you going to need a ride home?” I asked. “I could stay and do my homework if you need me to.”

“Maybe in the future,” she said. “Tonight, you’re supposed to put in an appearance at Arlene’s. I can get a ride or call Mom.”

I didn’t bother asking how she knew I was supposed to visit the redheaded goddess. It was painfully obvious that the women in my life had no secrets where I was concerned.

We reached the lunch line and I opted for the hot plate — Beef Stroganoff. It looked like the cafeteria was changing up its schedule this week. I put it down to the holiday making for a shorter week.

I was hoping I might actually get to eat it this week. At least I had avoided any meatloaf-related disasters yesterday.

Everything went swimmingly. I even got to eat my lunch without having to fight off my teammates, though a few did cast speculative glances at my tray.

Then Dr. Stirling came over to the table. This was getting dangerously close to enemy action.

“May I have a quick word, Gary?” he asked with a smile.

“Yes, sir,” I said. “Just let me return my tray.”

“I’ll do it,” Jed said, quickly reaching across the table to snag my uneaten dinner roll. Seems the O-line was still protecting the property of the offense from the defense.

“Thanks,” I said without enthusiasm as I rose, grabbed my backpack and followed the superintendent out to the courtyard for the second week in a row.

At least he didn’t keep me in suspense once we were out there.

“I just wanted to thank you for your handling of the situation with Elise,” Dr. Stirling said as we sat at one of the tables. “She told me about the talk she had with you Saturday night. I think she realized the big picture needs to take precedence over short-term goals.”

“Thank you, sir,” I said. “I’m just glad I was able to get out of it without hurting her feelings.”

“Now I just have to convince Lynnette to put away the bridal magazines for few more years,” he chuckled.

“Who?”

“My wife,” he said. “She seemed to have even higher hopes than Elise did.”

I really had no response for that. I wondered if I should tell Mrs. Stirling she’d have to get past Arturo’s abuela before making such plans.

“Elise also told me about how she was afraid she was acting too much like your cousins,” he added. “The little one practically has you roped, tied and branded. She most definitely did not approve of her sister’s actions at the party.”

“Neither did my aunt,” I said. “I just hope I can get off to college before either of them does something really stupid. My grandmother’s already warned me about Kirsten.”

“At least I don’t have any sons in their age group,” the superintendent said. “Dealing with one broken heart is enough. I think Elise was actually trying to hit girls on the other team last night with some of her attacks.”

Again, I had no response. I hadn’t noticed anything like that in the one set I’d watched. Maybe my lab partner had gotten it out of her system before I arrived.

“Well, I’d better get on with my business,” Dr. Stirling said, rising to go. “I’ll see what I can do about the rumor mill.”

“Thank you, sir,” I said.

There were still a few minutes before the bell after the superintendent took his leave. I really didn’t want to deal with questions from my teammates or Morgan right now.

Arlene would at least be preparing to leave for her obstetrics appointment, if not already there, and wouldn’t have time to deal with me. That didn’t mean I couldn’t check in with her housekeeper, though.

I pulled my phone out of the backpack and hit Marie’s number in my contact list. I don’t know how long it rang on her end, but she answered after the first blip of a ring on mine.

“Daddy!” she answered excitedly. “I was hoping you’d call. I missed you last night.”

“I’m sorry, baby,” I said. “Did you have a good day yesterday?”

“A busy one,” she said. “I helped Mrs. Jenson pack for the trip, then we went and helped Mrs. Metzger finish her packing. They’re on their way to Mrs. Jenson’s doctor’s appointment right now. Are you coming over tonight?”

“It’ll be after football practice, at least 7 o’clock, maybe later,” I said. “Arlene said she may have some chores for me.”

“I remember,” Marie said. “I was there when she said it. Their bus is supposed to get here tomorrow morning. We’re supposed to load their luggage and they’ll leave Friday morning. Mrs. Metzger’s staying here the next two nights.”

I wondered what that would mean for Bethany. I’d have to check and see if she needed a ride to school Thursday or Friday, but I had other things to deal with first.

“Have you been anywhere in your car since Monday?” I asked Marie.

“No,” she said. “I haven’t even tried to start it. The only time I went anywhere yesterday was to Mrs. Metzger’s with Mrs. Jenson. I haven’t needed to go anywhere today and don’t expect to.”

“Well, if you do, call or text me,” I said. “I’ll take you after practice tonight or tomorrow if you need me to. If I can’t answer during school, just leave a voicemail. I’ll see about getting it into a shop here in the next few days.”

“Yes, Daddy,” she said.

“I’ve got to get to class,” I said. “You be a good girl. I’ll see you this evening.”

“Yes, Daddy,” she said. “Love you.”

That caught me totally off-guard, but I thought I recovered quickly enough.

“Love you, too, baby,” I said.

“You have the most interesting phone conversations,” Kelli Thornton said from behind me as I disconnected the call.

“And you have the most amazing ability to hear parts of them you really shouldn’t,” I said, powering the phone off and returning it to my backpack.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” the head cheerleader blushed, “but I needed to talk to you. Staci said she’d talked to you about Sadie Hawkins.”

“It was mentioned, but not in detail,” I said. “All I got out of it is the girl I expected to ask me isn’t going to after all.”

“Good,” Kelli said. “I just wanted to tell you to not accept any offers until after the pep rally Friday.”

“Anything else I should know?” I asked.

“Not right now,” she grinned. “It would ruin the surprise.”

“I reserve the right to reject an offer I don’t like,” I said as I shouldered the backpack and prepared to leave.

“I don’t think that will be a problem,” Kelli said. “Besides, when you say yes, we’ll be able to spread the word that you’ve already got a date and cut down on some offers I’m pretty sure you won’t like.”

“When?”

“Gotta think positive,” she said. “But I’m pretty sure you’ll say yes. Staci thinks you will.”

“What does Staci have to do with it?” I asked, getting an uncomfortable feeling.

“It was her idea,” Kelli said. “Personally, I think it’s a good one.”

“We’ll see,” I grunted just as the bell rang, saving me from any other bright ideas people may have for me.

The afternoon classes seemed to follow much the same trend as the morning — those that didn’t have homework yesterday had it today. Algebra II and Chemistry were easy enough, just the next 10 problems in the chapter we were working on. I was able to get about half of each done before the end of class.

Elise Stirling used the time Mr. Debussy granted us in class to pump me for information about my latest talk with her dad under the guise of getting my help on the assignment.

“What did he have to say?” she asked as we looked up which compounds various elements would create when combined.

“Not much,” I said. “Just thanked me for inviting your family to the club. Didn’t even forbid me to see you again, but I think he’s glad you made the decision you did.”

“I’m sure there was more to it than that,” she said with a hint of exasperation.