Chapter 23

I received a surprise phone call on Sunday evening just after 7 o'clock. My brother Will called to talk. He hadn't done a Sunday evening call since last spring. We exchanged e-mails to keep each other up on what we were doing, but we hadn't talked.

Will and I talked about school. I told him all about how Andy and I were doing in football. We talked about my break up with Penny. Finally Will got to the point of his call. He wanted to warn me about my promiscuous sex with Stacie, Sally and Jessie. Who told him about that? He tried to talk me into waiting to have sex until I found a steady girlfriend and she was ready to commit herself to me. I tried to be polite and I didn't tell him, but I thought Will was full of shit. Why should I give up something I enjoy so much? Will just doesn't understand what my life is like. Even though I didn't like what Will had to say, I was glad he called. I still appreciated my big brother.

The coaches worked the team hard at practices this week. We would play the undefeated Braves at our field. If we were going to have any chance at all of going to the play-offs, we had to win this week. The tapes of their previous games this year showed that they had a strong defense, an OK offense and great special teams. They had scored three touchdowns already this year on punt and kick returns. We were going to have a tough game. We would find out whether we were a legitimate play-off team or not on Friday night.

When practice was done on Wednesday, Ed, Jeremy, Andy and I met at Greg's car for our ride home. Andy's mood was buoyant. He was promoted to starter as the split end on the JV team. Nothing in the world could dampen Andy's spirits that night.

I saw more school spirit on Friday than I had seen since last year's play-off games. Kids constantly came up to Ed, Jeremy and me to wish us luck, to tell us to beat the Braves, telling us to score lots of touchdowns. It felt great. Travis Evans even wished me luck between third and fourth period. I didn't like him dating my ex-girlfriend, but I couldn't dislike Travis. He's actually a nice guy. If I couldn't date Penny, Travis was good choice.

The locker room was subdued that evening as we prepared for our first big game of the year. Some guys joked around but most of us concentrated on our responsibilities in our game plan. Word filtered back to us that our JV team won 31-17 and that my little brother was the big hero. He caught two touchdowns in his first game as a starter. Way to go Andy!

I asked Ed if Jessie had talked to him yet. He said she hadn't. I smiled, wondering what he was going to say about Jessie's proposal for the next evening.

The weather that day had been beautiful. The temperature was still around seventy degrees when we took the field. Our stands were filled to capacity. The crowd in the stands looked like a sea of red and white. While Ed and I were waiting for our turn to be introduced, I asked, "You ready, Ed?"

"I guess, Kyle. I've never seen the crowd this pumped up. It's pretty amazing."

"I know. Ignore them Ed. Tonight it's just eleven of us playing eleven of them. Football. You'll do great buddy."

The speakers blared "Number 87 Kyle Martin, Wide Receiver." I ran between the two lines of my teammates getting slaps on the back and high fiving my teammates. Finally they announced "Number 9 Edward Fritz, Quarterback," to raucous cheers. Ed ran down the line to more slaps and high fives. I put my arm around Ed and said, "Football. It's the greatest game in the world."

Ed smiled and answered, "Yep, it is, Kyle. Let's get'em."

The Braves won the coin toss and elected to receive the kick-off. I don't know what hole the Braves had found our special teams, but their returner blasted through a gap and took the opening kick-off the length of the field for a touchdown before the game was ten seconds old. It was exactly like last year.

We started our drive with a couple of runs up the middle by Stan. We wanted to see how our offensive line stacked up against the Braves' defensive line. Our guys pushed them off the line of scrimmage. Stan picked up eleven yards on the first two plays. The coaches substituted Drew in for Stan. The Braves were looking for a pass. I streaked the field at three quarters speed, drawing their cornerback with me. Ed pitched the ball out to Drew who followed me down the field. We picked up twenty-two yards on the play before the outside linebacker caught Drew.

The fourth play was a quick out to Don. Ed dropped back three steps after the snap, turned and fired the ball to Don. Or at least that is who he was aiming for. The free safety appeared out of no where, intercepted the ball and ran for the end zone. Greg, Don and I pursued him. Greg and I had bad angles and Don couldn't catch him. The safety scored a touchdown. We were down 14-0 and the game was less than two minutes old.

Stan looked at me and said, "Déjà vu."

I answered, "Here we go again. I hope it turns out the same as last year in the end."

Ed led us back out onto the field again. The coaches mixed the plays up, calling for runs inside by Stan, runs outside by Drew and passes to Greg, Don and I. We kept making first downs and moving the sticks (marking first down yardage) down the field in spite of the pass rush pressuring Ed. Coach Caffrey decided to stretch their defense with a deep pass when we crossed their forty yard line. Stan faked a run up the middle while I sprinted for the end zone. Ed arced the ball down the field. I leaped and grabbed the ball over the outstretched hands of their free safety. I twisted and dragged him the last two yards into the end zone. Score: 14-7 Braves.

The Braves took the kick-off and pushed our defense slowly down the field. Our defense played well, but we couldn't stop their drive, only slow it down. They pushed down into our red zone, less than 20 yards to score. On the next play, Jeremy blew through a gap in the line and dropped the ball carrier for a four yard loss. On the following play Andy Groff chased the quarterback out of bounds as he avoided a sack. On the third play Rick Winters knocked the ball out of the tight end's hands as he ran a crossing route. The Braves settled for field goal. That made the score 17-7 Braves.

The next couple of offensive possessions by each team moved the ball for a couple or three first downs before the defense stiffened and stopped the drive. We stayed behind ten points as the end of the half neared. We were moving the ball well this time. We had pushed to our forty-two yard line when Coach Caffrey called for us to run our fake reverse. The Braves had seen me run the reverse in our play-off game last fall. We wanted to exploit their memories of the play.

On the snap, I turned and sprinted back across the backfield, listening in amusement as the cornerback who covered me frantically yelled "Reverse! Reverse!" to his teammates. Greg peeled off the line and blocked him further into our backfield and out of the play. Ed pitched the ball to Drew, who pretended to hand it off to me. I cradled the air where the ball should have been and sprinted for the far sideline. Ed threw a nasty block on the linebacker who had knocked him down last play to spring me "free." I turned the corner and was "tackled" by their cornerback. I got up laughing, showing him my empty hands. Meantime Drew had sprinted for the opposite sideline and was running down it for the end zone. Unfortunately their free safety hadn't completely bought into our fake. He managed to catch Drew at the ten yard line and force him out of bounds six yards short of the end zone.

It took us three more plays, but Stan pounded the ball into the end zone with two defenders on his back for our second touchdown. Disaster struck on the point after attempt. Steve bobbled the ball when it was snapped to him for the kick. All he could do was cover it up and prevent the Braves from grabbing it. With the missed PAT, the score stood at 17-13 Braves.

There was 1:42 left in the half. The Braves ran their two minute offense to perfection. They moved the ball right down the field on our prevent defense. As they neared our red zone, we switched to blitzing their quarterback. We managed to stop their passes for three straight downs, forcing them to try a long field goal. Their kicker barely got the ball to the goal post. It bounced off the bottom upright, unfortunately bouncing in for a field goal instead of bouncing out for a miss. The halftime score was 20-13 Braves.

The coaches reminded us that if we could stop making bone headed mistakes; we could outscore the Braves. We had actually scored two touchdowns to their two field goals in the first half. We were going to stick to our game plan. We were only behind seven points.

The second half opened with another long drive by us. The coaches mixed Drew into the plays more often. His outside running complimented Stan's inside pounding well. Ed drilled a twenty-two yard pass to me to bring us to the Braves eighteen yard line. We couldn't move the ball any closer, so we settled for a field goal to bring the score to 20-16 Braves.

The Braves answered with a long drive of their own that managed a field goal. We were still down by seven points. Both defenses dominated throughout the rest of the third and fourth periods. We started our last gasp, got to score drive with only 2:05 left to play in the game.

The Braves blitzed constantly. We managed to move the ball with quick passes, screens, and a couple draws. We were on the Braves' forty-two yard line with 18 seconds left when the coaches decided to go for it all. They brought in three receivers and Drew at tailback. Everyone went deep, flooding the red zone with too many receivers. The Braves had realized how fast Drew was, so the free safety that normally helped cover me had to follow Drew instead. This was all the opening Ed needed. He fired the ball to me as I out leaped the cornerback in the back of the end zone for a touchdown. Score: 23-22 Braves.

Coach Caffrey shocked me, the Braves and probably most of the crowd in the stands when he called for us to make a two point conversion instead of kicking the PAT for one point to tie the game. We lined up at the five yard line. On the snap Drew went by Ed for the hand-off. I blocked the cornerback towards the sideline to get him away from Drew. Greg blocked the outside linebacker on the right side towards the goal post, opening a hole for Drew and Dustin Roberts, our pulling guard. Dustin pancaked the strong safety who was trying to tackle Drew before he reached the end zone. They stopped Drew one yard short of the end zone. All of us looked on in horror as our hopes for the season crumbled before our eyes. Drew got up smiling displaying his empty hands.

Ed didn't tell us the real play in the huddle. Our whole team had followed the play fake to the right side while Ed ran untouched into the left side of the end zone on a naked bootleg to score the two point conversion. The score now stood at 24-23 Wolverines! There was twelve seconds left in the game. Our kick-off coverage smothered the return guy. The Braves tried two Hail Mary passes, but couldn't complete either pass. We managed an amazing come from behind victory over one of three undefeated teams in our league.

Our fans poured onto the field to celebrate our victory. The cheerleaders flocked to Ed and I since we had scored the points that won us the game. Jessie gave Ed a kiss on the cheek to congratulate him and then she whispered into his ear. At first he looked shocked, but finally he got a big grin on his face. Ed gave me a thumbs up. I hadn't noticed who was beside me while I watched Jessie and Ed. When I turned I got a big kiss on the cheek from Julie Simpson.

"Oh ... hi," I stuttered.

Julie gushed, "That was the most amazing football game I ever saw, Kyle. You played great." She kissed me again, this time on the lips. We sustained the kissed for ten, twenty seconds and then I felt it. Julie's tongue! I opened my mouth and carefully met her tongue with mine. Our tongues dueled in each other's mouths for about thirty seconds before we broke apart. I stared at Julie, speechless.

She said, "We should go out for another date some time, Kyle. I know it will be more fun than our last date."

"Um, yeah. We should. Um, that would be cool, Julie," I stammered.

"Call me sometime, Kyle," she answered. I nodded my head. The girl of my seventh and eighth grade fantasies wanted me! My cock swelled to its full six and a half inches, painfully expanding out of the protective cup in my jock strap. I covered it up with my helmet. Skin tight football pants revealed too much even when you were limp. I certainly didn't want any girls spotting my cock now.

I walked gingerly to the locker room after I talked to my family. It took entirely too long for my erection to shrink to normal size again.

Coach Caffrey stood in front of the team and announced, "This was a great win team. I'm proud of every one of you. We started our season with the goal of returning to the playoffs and going further than last year. We are still on track. I have two game balls to present tonight. The first goes to Kyle Martin for his two touchdowns tonight, including the winning one." I stepped forward and accepted the ball. "The second one goes to Ed Fritz for his superb job this evening. Under considerable heat all night, he put the ball where it needed to be and did a great job leading our offense. He also scored the winning points on the best naked bootleg play I have seen in twenty-two years of playing and coaching football. Congratulations, Ed." Ed beamed as he accepted his award.

Coach continued, "We have put ourselves in the driver's seat tonight. If we win the rest of our games, we will make the playoffs. Celebrate tonight. Tomorrow we start getting ready for Central. They will be much tougher than the Braves. We need everyone's best effort seven days from now when we go to Manheim to prove to them that our league has a new dominant team. This is the Wolverine's time. Work hard, do your best. This is our time, team." Everyone cheered Coach's speech.

Stan, Andy Groff and Jerry Frankhouser called for everyone's attention. They announced that we would be having a cook out/party at Stan's tomorrow afternoon, starting at four pm. Greg arranged to give Ed, Jeremy and me a ride to the party.

I had just stripped out of my uniform and was sitting on the bench naked when Ed asked, "What do you think of the idea of you, Jessie and me having sex together?"

"I think it will be awesome."

Ed asked, "You won't feel weird about it?"

"Why should we feel weird? We've seen each other naked a million times. Hell, we're naked right now and talking about sex. We watch porn tapes together. We've seen each other's cocks frequently. We've jerked off together. We have listened to each other have sex in tents ten feet apart. Why would this bother me?"

"I don't know. I just want to make sure you're OK with this."

"I've been thinking about this all week, Ed. Jessie suggested it last Saturday when we were finished having sex. It'll be cool."

Even though it was late, Mom and Dad took the whole family out to the Dairy Queen in Gap to celebrate our families' four touchdown night. Andy and I loved every minute of the adulation.

It was the 14th of October. Why couldn't the frost come quickly and kill all the grass? Andy and I spent most of the day cutting luxurious long green blades of grass for our seven customers. When we were done I showered, shaved the few scraggily hairs that managed to grow on my chin and dressed in my best casual clothes. Andy bugged me again about taking him along to the movies some Saturday. I explained about the team party. Andy was disappointed. I headed for Ed's house, where Greg would pick the three of us up and take us to the team cookout. Ed explained that Jeremy had called. He was getting a ride with Kathy's parents. Kathy was going to the party too.

Greg pulled up out front. Ed climbed in the back and I sat in front so my long legs could unfold. When we were on the way, Greg asked, "Did you guys see the league standings in the paper today?"

"I assume we are tied with the Braves and Cornwall in second place behind Central." I answered.

"You assume incorrectly Kyle." Greg said.

"Huh?"

Greg explained, "Cornwall lost last night."

Ed exclaimed, "What? They were playing Eastern. How could they lose? Eastern hasn't ever won a football game."

Greg continued, "You should have read the paper this morning. Cornwall's head coach resigned yesterday morning for quote 'personal reasons' unquote. He was caught having sex with a student."

I asked, "How do you know that, Greg?"

"My cousin goes to school at Cornwall. He filled me in on what is happening. The shocking part is who the coach was having sex with. He was caught giving the quarterback a blow job."

"Shit!" Ed exclaimed.

"I don't believe it," I said.

"The quarterback has disappeared. No one has seen him since Thursday afternoon. Their football team is in turmoil. I bet they don't win another game this season."

I said, "What a lucky break for us. If we end up tied with Cornwall at the end of the season, they would take the tie breaker and go to the playoffs while we would go home."

Ed asked, "Do you think the coach will be arrested?"

Greg explained, "No. The quarterback is seventeen. He is above the age of consent. It wasn't illegal for them to do what they did, but it is wrong for a teacher to have sex with a student. The coach will be fired next Tuesday night when the school board meets."

I said, "Wow! This is a lucky break for us. I can't imagine what it would be like to have this happen to a team."

Greg, Ed and I discussed our game last night for the rest of the ten minute drive to the Humphreys' house. Stan's parents welcomed us to the house and sent us out to the back yard where our friends were gathering. Andy Groff and Rick Winters were at the barbeque grilling hot dogs and hamburgers.

Stan spotted us and came over to greet us. He smiled and said, "Welcome guys. The burgers and dogs will be ready in a few minutes. There are salads over there." Stan pointed to a card table loaded with macaroni salad, potato salad, pasta salad and garden salad. "Over there are desserts. We have iced tea in the red cooler and fruit punch in the blue cooler." Stan's voice dropped to a whisper. "The fruit punch is spiked. Andy insisted on adding fifth of gin to the drink. Be careful. I don't want anyone getting drunk tonight. My parents would flip, OK?"

We agreed. We headed for the drink table. Greg poured himself a cup of iced tea. Ed smiled and said, "I'm going to try the punch." He poured himself a full glass of punch. I shrugged my shoulders and poured myself some too. Ed took a small sip.

I took a gulp of the punch. I gasped as it burned its way down my throat. I stammered, "Ahhh ... that's strong!"

Ed and Greg laughed. Ed asked, "Haven't you had gin before?"

"no!" I squeaked in a high grating voice. "Not this strong." I coughed and tried to smile.

Ed explained, "Take small sips, Kyle. You get used to it." Greg smiled and nodded.

I took a small sip. It still burned, but not quite as much as the first gulp. I coughed and asked, "How the hell do you know how to drink gin?"

Ed explained, "I steal a little from my dad's supply once in a while. You do get used to it."

I took another sip. I spit it back in the cup. "Maybe I will someday Ed, but not today." I poured the punch out and filled my glass with iced tea. I downed the contents and refilled my glass.

Stacie, Cindy and Julie showed up a few minutes behind us. Greg made a beeline for them. I guessed he was looking for some action tonight too. I looked around, hoping to find Jessie. She wasn't here yet. Ed and went over to talk with Jeremy and Kathy. We talked until Stan, Andy and Rick called everyone for our meal. We lined up and filled our plates with food.

The main topics of discussion were the problems at Cornwall, our game with the Braves and our chances against Central next week. When I finished my dinner, I slipped inside to use the bathroom. Ed and Jessie were kissing when I came out. I decided to give them some time together. Stacie grabbed my arm and pulled me aside. She rubbed my back and asked, "Do you want to have some fun tonight? I'd really like that, Kyle."

"I'm sorry Stacie. I'm going out with someone else tonight."

"Ummm" Stacie said as she pouted for a few seconds. "Any suggestions for somebody for me?"

"Huh? You want me to suggest someone to have sex with you?"

"Sure, Kyle, why not?" Stacie asked.

"Jeez, Stacie, I don't know. What about Don?"

"No Kyle. Don has been dating Kelsey Stafford since they were in eighth grade."

"Karl?" I asked.

Stacy pointed across the backyard at Karl and Cindy who were kissing at the moment. She asked, "Any other ideas?"

"Ummm ... I don't know," I noticed Drew walking over for a refill on his drink, "How about Drew McCormick?"

Stacie smiled, "Drew? Do you think he would be interested? I'm not sure if he's dating anyone."

I answered, "I really don't know, Stacie. Why don't you go talk with him?"

"I think I will. He's cute. It could be fun. Thanks, Kyle," Stacie said. She headed straight for Drew. I went over to join Jessie and Ed.

Jessie greeted me with a kiss on the cheek. "Hi, Kyle. Are you ready for tonight?"

I answered, "I guess. I'm excited, nervous and scared all at the same time. How about you, Ed?"

Ed answered, "I'm good to go. Jessie has been getting me warmed up already. I can't wait."

"Good! I'm glad you two are ready. Tonight's going to be a blast. When do you guys want to leave?" Jessie asked.

I said, "I'd like to get seconds on dinner first. I need to keep my strength up you know."

Ed added, "Yeah. I could go for another burger. Do we have enough time, Jessie?"

"Yes. Go get more food. I don't want you to get tired before we are done tonight."

Ed and I filled our plates with food. The three of us found places at one of the picnic tables and enjoyed our food. Stan, Andy Groff and Jerry Frankhouser led an impromptu pep rally to get us psyched for our game against Central. They reminded us that the game was about the lead and control of our league and playoff destiny.