Chapter 12

Emily got up early Saturday morning because her pledge class had a trip planned. She came down to breakfast to find David eating by himself.

“May I join you?”

He smiled and nodded to the seat across from him.

“I can’t believe I would see a sorority girl up this early on a Saturday morning,” David teased.

His nearness made her heart skip as she caught his earthy male scent mixed with a hint of mint.

“Well, yeah. Normally, I would sleep in, but my pledge class is going to Venice Beach. Taylor has organized a scavenger hunt that sounds like fun.”

“Have you ever been?” David asked.

“No.”

“I have, and it makes for a nice day. I suggest walking the canals. There are some great restaurants hidden in that area. If you want to get a feel of the whole neighborhood, rent a bicycle and ride the bike path,” David suggested.

“I think I’ll do the bike tour first.”

“What is Taylor having you find?” David asked.

“Well, it’s ... uhm ... called ‘shoot your shot.’ The way she explained it is like when you go to a frat party and see a hot guy. Taylor said it never hurts to go and try to talk to him. It’s supposed to help us get more comfortable talking to guys,” Emily explained.

“Does Crystal know about this?” David asked.

“I don’t know, but Wren said she would help me.”

David’s look told her he didn’t think that was a good idea.

“What exactly do you have to do?”

“I have to get ten guys to take off their shirts and take a selfie with me,” Emily said.

“And?”

“Why does there have to be an ‘and’?” Emily asked.

“Because it’s Taylor.”

David must know Taylor better than she thought.

“A dick pic,” she mumbled.

“Do the guys all have to be at Venice Beach?” David asked.

“No. Taylor said if we didn’t finish at the beach, we could get the rest at the party we’re going to tonight.”

“Want to get your list done before you go on your trip? That way, you can just enjoy yourself,” David suggested.

“The first one done gets out of house duties for two weeks,” Emily said. “But the time stamp has to be today, and they have to have nice bods.”

“Finish your breakfast and come with me,” David said.

David was meeting with Dr. Liao to get cleared for contact. He had Emily wait outside the locker room while he went inside. He came out with ten guys.

“Okay. This is my friend Emily, and I want you to treat her like you would your own sister,” David began.

“Willy’s from West Virginia, and I think sisters are fair game back there,” one of the linemen quipped.

“Settle down,” David said. “Emily needs you to take your shirts off and take a picture with her. One of you needs to let her take a dick pic.”

“I’ll do it so she can see what a real man looks like,” Willy offered.

David chuckled when Emily blushed.

“You game?” David asked her.

“Uh, sure,” she bravely said.

David had planned to leave but decided he’d better hang around and take the pictures for her.

Willy went first.

“Oh. My. Gosh,” Emily said as she checked out his package.

Willy was gifted, and it was apparent that Emily had never seen one that large. It made Willy’s day.

Once David took the photo of Emily with the last guy, she wanted her phone back so she could see the pictures. David was caught off guard when she grabbed the back of his head and kissed him.

“What the hell? I get naked, and she kisses Dawson?” Willy complained.

“Thanks, guys. This will give me the win for sure,” Emily beamed.

“Go show Taylor and have fun today,” David said.

After she left, David thanked his teammates, who had enjoyed the distraction. He went to see Dr. Liao.

David didn’t know if he should be concerned. David suspected they’d shot Matt up with painkillers so he could play the second half of the Washington State game. And now Dr. Liao had cleared David for full contact a week early because they needed him to start against Arizona next Saturday.

The result for Matt was that it looked like he’d miss the Arizona game and possibly the one after that, depending on what the doctors found later that day. He could potentially be done for the season. David wondered if he should get a second opinion on his own condition.

He didn’t have time to focus on this because the team was gathered to watch the game film from the Washington State win. Once everyone was settled, Coach Merritt came in and addressed the team.

“We let them slip through our fingers too many times. We’re still looking for an identity. We have too many guys thinking they have to compensate for others. That doesn’t lead to very good play.”

He then began the film session. He always started by showing every penalty and calling out who got them and why.

“The next one is a delay of game, and this is just uncalled for. Most of these are my fault,” Coach Merritt said, “but this one wasn’t...”

David liked that he did this. Penalties killed drives and lost games. What Coach Merritt was doing was making everyone accountable for their mistakes. Not in a way to embarrass them but to make them aware and hopefully avoid making the same mistake the next game.

“We had way too many penalties. Aggressive penalties are one thing, but dumb penalties are another. Unsportsmanlike conduct, John Johnson, dumb ... delay of game, dumb ... How can we be this dumb, dumb, dumb?” he asked as he pointed at his list. “We can’t have dumb, dumb, dumb. We have to be smarter than that. We’ve got to be smarter at coaching you than that,” Coach Merritt added.

Well, maybe he was trying to embarrass some people. John had gotten penalties that killed drives in each of the games he’d played in.

After they watched the film and cheered Percy for blocking the field goal, they went out in shorts and t-shirts and worked on fixing mistakes from the previous game. Stuff like Marcus running too wide on a particular play, causing him to lose yardage.

“Be sharp as hell ... gamelike ... gamelike!” Coach Merritt barked.

Emily loved the tickling feeling of the sand eroding from underneath her feet as the ocean waves continued to roll in and back out to sea. While all the other pledges were busy chatting up guys, she was able to enjoy her day at the beach.

What amazed her was that it wasn’t all that packed this morning. Like the nearly four million people who lived here, she rarely made her way to one of the best places in LA. Today was sunshine, a nice breeze, and temperatures in the mid-80s. Why would anyone not want to be outside at the beach?

Wren joined her.

“Are you done?” Emily asked.

“Yep. Remind me next time to use your secret weapon: David.”

“How did you know?”

“Because I recognized a few of the football players, and you live in his dorm,” Wren explained.

“It sort of was cheating, but now I don’t have to do house duties for a while.”

“You’re also my main competition for pledge ranking. I’m going to have to keep an eye on you,” Wren said with a smile that told Emily Wren was just giving her a hard time.

“Our rankings might seriously change once we have midterms. Intro to Economics is kicking my butt.”

“You know someone who’s a business major and a straight ‘A’ student. You should ask them to tutor you,” Wren said.

“Crystal?”

“No, David.”

“I couldn’t do that,” Emily hastily said.

“I might.”

Wren could be yanking her chain, but Emily felt the sneaky, snaking fingers of jealousy thread into her chest. She kept getting the feeling that Wren wanted David for herself, which would be a major violation of the sorority sister code. You didn’t steal another sister’s boyfriend.

But if David was free ... What? What would Emily do? She’d never had a steady boyfriend and wouldn’t know where to begin getting someone of his caliber. Whereas someone like Wren knew all about sex and men. Emily wouldn’t stand a chance if Wren set her eyes on David.

“And Crystal would make your life a living hell,” Emily predicted.

“Not if she helped us study,” Wren said as her face lit up with mischief.

Emily slapped her hand over her face in horror, making Wren’s day.

“My goal is to knock some of the innocent off you before we graduate,” Wren promised. “You know what would go a long way to doing that? If we get Crystal to let both of us—”

“NO!” Emily said, covering her ears so she couldn’t hear what Wren was saying.

Then she got the giggles because Emily suddenly imagined it. Wren was such a bad influence.

After the team film session, the quarterbacks went to their room to watch more video. Each position was currently doing the same with their respective coaches. The topic was Arizona, next week’s opponent.

David noted that Matt’s arm was in a sling.

“Arizona’s defense has some young guns. Last year, two freshmen combined for 179 tackles, first and second most in the Pac-12 for freshmen. As a matter of fact, their whole defense was young due to a coaching change a couple of years ago,” Coach Thomas said.

“Who’ll start if Matt can’t go?” Jaden asked.

“Dawson was cleared for contact, so he’s the next man up,” Coach Thomas said to make it clear. “Guys, I need you to focus. Winning is hard, and we’re going into Arizona on Family Weekend. It typically draws a bigger crowd; plus, this game will be on ESPN2. Arizona will be fired up and wanting to protect their home turf since they’ve lost to us four straight.”

“What’s the key to winning this week?” David asked.

“Eliminating the stupid penalties, protecting the ball, and winning the time of possession by at least five minutes,” Coach Thomas shared.

In David’s mind, that meant they would run the ball.

Coach Thomas then began to run Arizona’s film, giving them an idea of what to expect.

Toward the end of their film session, Coach Merritt and USC’s recruiting coordinator, Bryant, interrupted. Bryant looked excited and glanced at their head coach, who gave him the nod to tell them his news.

“I wanted to share with David that his recruiting efforts bore fruit. Eight of them committed, but the others wanted to visit a couple of other schools before deciding. The good news is that as of right now, they all want to join us at USC,” Bryant said.

“Give me a list of both and any notes that’ll help us, and we’ll get them all into the fold,” David promised.

“What are you talking about?” Matt asked.

“David and the other freshmen have been helping Bryant and the other coaches recruit,” Coach Merritt explained.

“What did Colt Macklin decide?” David asked.

He was the crown jewel that every team in America wanted.

“He said ‘yes,’ but his mom said they wouldn’t do anything officially until his senior year,” Bryant said.

“That’s a smart move. I’d want to know who the coach will be next year before I made my final decision,” David said—and instantly wanted to pull it back.

The room went silent; everyone was on the edge of their seat, waiting to see what Coach Merritt would say to that. They all knew he had the interim label, and there was no guarantee he would be asked back. If David wanted to be a prick, he could have shared what Gabe and Ron had told him about their ‘quiet’ search for his replacement. At no time had they mentioned that Coach Merritt was in the running.