Chapter 31: Wednesday, Sept. 12

I don’t know why Kacie was so clingy this morning, but she barely allowed me to get more than a step or two away from her after my alarm went off. I think our longest separation was when she went to her room to get dressed for the day. She even dispensed with her regular hair and makeup regimen, probably for the first time since she was in eighth grade.

“Can I ride to school with you?” she asked timidly as we headed to the kitchen for breakfast.

“Sure, but how are you going to get home?” I replied. “I’ll have practice and study hall. It might be 7:30 before I’m done.”

“I can wait,” my sister said. “We can go to the apartment, you can bring me home and be back by your curfew.”

That wouldn’t leave much time for what I’m sure she’d want to do at the apartment. I’d better not have too much homework.

“We need to leave soon,” I said. “I’ve got to get some running in. I’ll let you tell Mom. She’s not real happy with me right now.”

We raced through breakfast — Kacie reminded me to drink my pineapple juice — and were on our way to school by 6:45. The trunk was almost filled by our school bags and my gym bag with a change of clothes. I pulled into my parking spot a little before 7, grabbed my gym bag and headed for the practice field.

“I’ll take that,” Kacie said, taking my gym bag and going to sit in the little bleachers on the far side of the field.

I set the alarm on my phone for 7:30 and started my running just as the freshmen lined up for calisthenics. I’d have to push it to get 50 gassers in before the alarm went off, but I’d need time to shower before class.

The freshmen broke up into position drill as I finished my fifth gasser. I gave myself a minute to catch my breath and started on the next set.

I concentrated on keeping an accurate count instead of pondering the latest developments in my life. The situation with Mrs. Montero would either work out to my benefit or result in her downfall. Things with Kacie were more complicated. Mom and Dad would surely have more to say about matters.

And I still needed to spend time with Marie. And my girlfriends. But not all at the same time.

My alarm hadn’t gone off as I hit 50. That would have to be enough for this morning. I was dripping sweat as I went to reclaim my gym bag from my sister.

“You need a shower,” she said, wrinkling her nose when I got a little too close.

“Headin’ that way,” I said. “Just need some clean clothes for school.”

“How many’d you get?” Coach Tucker asked as I reached the locker room door.

“Fifty, Coach,” I said. “Should get the rest tomorrow morning.”

The cool shower felt wonderful and I got clean enough to get through morning classes. I dressed and headed to the car to get my backpack. Kacie was waiting on me, needing to get her bag, as well.

“Walk me to my locker?” she asked with a hint of a blush.

“Sure,” I said. It was still nearly 15 minutes until the first bell, giving me plenty of time to hit my own locker and get back to Mr. Cochran’s room before the tardy bell.

I dropped my sister off, receiving a peck on the cheek, and carried on with my day. I could only hope Kacie’s actions didn’t draw too much notice. I’d better talk to her about her behavior. We didn’t need folks at school figuring out the truth about us.

On a day when I was hoping to avoid homework, I of course had it in every morning class. Economics was the next 10 problems in the chapter we were on, Western Civ had more reading and English IV was an essay that would require some time. I was more than ready for athletics and lunch when third period ended.

The flexibility session left me trying to get muscles untwisted enough to function and we went over the game plan for Saturday. We’d still have the test on Thursday so we could have Friday’s period for the walkthrough.

I was not ready for what Morgan threw at me as we headed to the cafeteria.

“You spanked your sister!?!?!?” she asked incredulously.

“Keep it down,” I ordered, looking around nervously. “Somebody might hear.”

“Why in the world would you do something like that?” she demanded, still with enough volume to make me uncomfortable.

“She took my car without asking,” I said. “Then she kept pushing things when I got home. I’ve been tellin’ y’all I’d put you over my knee if you didn’t behave. After dealing with Mrs. Montero yesterday, I’d had enough.”

“Well, don’t think you’ll get away with trying that with me, boyo,” Morgan huffed as we neared the South Wing.

“Don’t take my car without asking,” I said. “Otherwise, my hand, your naked tushy. Just like I did with Kacie.”

Morgan’s eyes opened wide and her face reddened at that little tidbit.

“You know I can’t drive a stick,” she muttered.

“Then we shouldn’t have a problem,” I grinned, “unless you decide to pull some other kind of stunt.”

Morgan quieted down as we moved through traffic toward the cafeteria, but pulled me off to the side away from everyone else before we got into line.

“So what happened with Mrs. Montero?” she demanded once we had a modicum of privacy.

“She chewed me out and gave me detention, but is letting me serve if Friday so I won’t miss any practices,” I said. “Coach Tucker still gave me 100 gassers. I did 50 this morning before school.”

“There’s more to it than that,” Morgan insisted. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“The same thing I wouldn’t tell Kacie,” I said. “Her refusal to let it go is one of the reasons she wound up over my knee. Do you need a demonstration?”

“You wouldn’t dare!” Morgan stated defiantly.

“That’s the exact same thing Kacie said just before I reddened her ass,” I said sternly. “I’d get in trouble for doing it here, but you may not leave me any choice.”

My little pixie just stared at me, like she was trying to decide if she could get away with calling my bluff. The nostril flare seemed to indicate her choice.

“Let’s eat,” she finally said.

The line had died down considerably by then and we quickly grabbed our meals, hit the card reader and made our way to our regular table. I shouldn’t have been surprised that my teammates were as full of questions as Morgan.

“Figured you’d be in ISS,” Chuck said. “How’d you get outta trouble this time?”

“Told Mrs. Montero you’d starve without me,” I snarked. “I didn’t get away scot-free. I’ve got detention on Friday. Coach gave me gassers and I’ll have to deal with Dunwoody.”

“Yeah, he doesn’t appreciate people messin’ with his Fridays,” Hank Preston said.

“Dad said you looked like one of his partners goin’ in for the kill in court,” Jed said. “Said he doesn’t know what you did and doesn’t want to. Somethin’ about plausible deniability.”

“And that’s more than you need to know,” I said. “I’m still in school and still on the team. You can ask Mrs. Montero if you want any more details.”

That at least got them to back off, but it was sure to increase the amount of gossip going around. And I thought girls were bad.

I managed to consume all of my food, though there were still some speculative glances at my tray from the O-line. It looked like Coach Tucker’s talk with the group had had little impact, if he’d even had it yet.

After dumping my tray, I bade Morgan farewell and headed for my locker to load up for the afternoon. She still seemed a little miffed at the way I’d treated my sister last night. I’d just have to deal with it.

Speaking of my sister, Kacie came up to me at my locker on her way to her next class, stealing a smooch that surely would have raised questions among anyone who knew we were siblings, which was most of the people who knew us. And it seemed like pretty much everyone knew who I was now.

“I wish we could cut our afternoon classes,” she whimpered. “We could visit the apartment and you could still make it to practice.”

Like that would go over well, especially with Mom. And I didn’t want to think about how much energy I would have left for football after a couple of hours with Kacie.

“Not gonna happen,” I said. “I missed all of Algebra II yesterday. Today’ll cover a big part of Friday’s test and I can’t afford to miss again. It’s going to be tough enough keeping my grades up enough to keep the Beemer. It wouldn’t even take that much of a drop to be told I can’t stay at the apartment anymore.”

“I know,” Kacie pouted. “I’ve got a couple of tests coming up myself. But a girl can dream, can’t she?”

“Get to class,” I snorted. “I’ll see you after practice.”

Zoe Yeats, the girl I’d swapped seats with the first week of school when I’d cramped up in class, was waiting on me when I got to Mr. Henderson’s room.

“Would you sign my poster for me, please?” she asked shyly. Her blush was so red, I thought she was about to burst into flames.

“No problem,” I said. “Do you have a felt-tip or will a ballpoint be all right?”

Zoe pulled out a fine-tip Sharpie and handed it and the rolled-up poster to me. I could have sworn someone had told me I’d never have to do this in algebra class. And from Mr. Henderson’s expression, I never should have.

I unrolled the poster, quickly scrawled my name across a patch of sand and handed the items back to Zoe.

“Thank you,” she blushed.

“You’re welcome,” I said as several of our classmates snickered.

“Now that that important bit of business is out of the way,” Mr. Henderson snarked as the tardy bell rang, “perhaps we can get on with class. Is that how you got out of trouble with Mrs. Montero yesterday, Robinson? Or did you just rely on your good looks and charm? Good of you to join us today.”

It was my turn to blush as the snickers escalated to chuckles and chortles.

At least Mr. Henderson didn’t give me any grief over not having a note from the office explaining my absence of the previous day. I think the fact that I had my homework finished helped matters.

After grading our assignments and handing them in, we got on with the lesson. We had another 10 problems to do for tomorrow, further cutting into the time I’d be able to give Kacie.

Chemistry didn’t have homework, thankfully. I still had four extra books in my bag as I headed off to seventh period. Creative Writing had an assignment, but Mrs. Cohen gave us the last half of class to work on it. I was almost done when the bell rang and would be able to finish up in just a few minutes.

The dash to the fieldhouse was managed without trouble and I was soon taped, dressed and out on the field for a Tuesday practice on Wednesday. I noticed Kacie had again taken a seat in the little bleachers on the far side of the field, a book open across her lap as she worked on an assignment.

We finished installing the game plan, which had some slight changes from the first two games since the Eagles based out of a 4-3, the third different defensive set we’d seen in three weeks. Things would get simpler in district in the respect that most of our opponents seemed to copy each other — one-back spread on offense and 3-4 on defense — but we’d have specific wrinkles for each opponent. It was perfecting those wrinkles that would take up most of our practice time then. We were supposed to have the basics down after this week.