Chapter 16

"... Tate with the ball. She's scrambling. She see's an opening and... it looks... it looks like a perfect pass right into the hands of Zach Hissman. A good catch, and Zach brought down on the thirty-four. That's another first down for the Rebels."

I leaned back and took a deep breath, then looked at Tami beside me. "I didn't realize that talking was such hard work."

Tami gave me a quick grin and went back to her laptop.

I looked back down on the field. "The Rebels out of their huddle. Mike Reed in the worry seat again. He takes the snap. Luke Hastings wide open, and a beautiful bomb right into his arms. Hastings on the ten. He shakes a defender, and another, he spins, and he's across! Touchdown, Rebels!" I shouted. "Hastings really showing why he was a star in Texas and now a star in Washington."

Tami leaned back and stretched. "Did it hurt?"

I grinned. "Just a little as the words were coming out of my throat."

"Poor baby," she said without a trace of conviction.

I grinned again. Life was good.

Mr. Reed had decided that I couldn't go cold turkey without football, and if I wasn't going to play, I should talk. He practically ordered me into the announcer's booth. We'd had a dozen announcers the last couple years, none of them very good. The problem was, for the most part, the world is divided into jocks and geeks. The geeks can talk good, but don't understand sports, especially football. They may know rules, but they don't feel the game. The jocks know the game, but can't necessarily talk it up on the spur of a moment into a microphone.

Then there's me.

There were perks. Second best was a nice heated announcer's booth with a great view of the field. I drafted Tami to help me track stats on her computer. Traci, Kelly, and Peter also shared our warm perch. Mikee would have, but she got drafted to the varsity cheerleaders when Patricia Kale decided to move without telling anyone ahead of time.

But the best perk was... Parker hated the idea.

The teams lined up for the kickoff, and I started talking again. After a while, I found I could take the input from my eyes and send it straight to my mouth without having to think about it. Of course, Parker would tell you that I usually skip thinking about what I'm saying.

"And now some routines by your Rebel cheerleaders and the drill team," I said and shut down the microphone. The teams had already jogged off the field for the half.

"Ladies, snackage?" I said as I stood and stretched. Snackage? Maybe I was watching too much Kim Possible. No, she was red-headed, a cheerleader, and completely flexible. No such thing as too much.

"What about me," Peter asked.

"Kid, you're cute, but you ain't that cute."

I came back a couple minutes later with the order. Another perk, I got to cut to the front of the snack bar line. Two popcorns, a nacho, a pretzel, three hot dogs and five Cokes.

I felt pretty good about my debut. To paraphrase our big song from the road trip, 'I may have stumbled, but I ain't never fell', or something like that. I kept the commentary moving along. I identified all of the players from our team and most of them from Wenatchee. Of course, it had been a pretty easy game to announce. We dominated from the opening kick-off, finishing the half twenty-one to six.

The drill team finished, and the cheerleaders rushed out for one final routine as the teams headed back to the field. I took a deep breath, turned on the microphone and started recapping the first half.

"Another bad decision by Coach Parker," I said as the third quarter wound down. "Deviating from the play book again, and in the confusion, a fumbled handoff by Reed to Tate, with Wenatchee recovering. What can he be thinking?"

"Enjoying yourself?" Tami asked as I flipped off the mike.

"Not really. He could give away this game." I'd made a comment at the end of the half about Parker using Coach Branson's playbook to full advantage. He apparently didn't like people to be reminded that this was still mostly Branson's team. He'd come out of halftime with several new plays which just weren't working. He'd managed to screw up the defense enough that Wenatchee had put two touchdowns and an extra point on the board, bringing the score to twenty-one twenty with less than thirty seconds in the quarter.

"Coach Parker's getting smart, bringing Tate in as Monsterback to stop the Wenatchee defense. The teams are taking the line, the snap, quarterback Ritter with the ball, and... ow, that had to hurt. Monster Girl with her third sack of the game."

I grinned at Tami, and she grinned back.

"Wait, there's a time-out on the field, called by the Rebels." I shut the mike off. "What the hell? Why'd he call a time-out now?"

Tami shrugged.

"And Monster Girl coming out of the game, replaced by Jim Elliott. The teams are lining up, twelve seconds in the third quarter."

The door to the booth opened, and Steve Logan rushed in and handed me a note, shrugged, and rushed out again. I didn't have time to look at it.

"There's the snap. Ritter with the ball, looking for an open man, and... and, Ritter takes off. He finds a hole in the line, great spin to get loose of Russell, and he's charging toward the goal. He's at the twenty. Brian James angling in from the side. He's at the fifteen. There's the gun. James almost on top of him. He's at the... James for the tackle and Ritter with a great reverse, he's at the ten. The five. Touchdown Wenatchee."

"End of the third quarter, Wenatchee twenty-seven, Rebels twenty-one," I finished a minute later after the extra point. I shut the microphone off and mumbled several inappropriate words.

"What'd the note say?" Tami asked, reminding me about the paper in my hand.

I opened it up and read it, then laughed. Tami looked at me questioningly, but I shrugged. It was just too good. "Ladies and gentlemen, I have just been instructed by Charlie Parker, the school's vice principal, that these announcements may not include any criticism of coaching mistakes by Head Coach Charlie Parker. I may also not mention any connection this team has had with Coach Branson, and Monster Girl may not be called that, but must be referred to as Robbie Tate or number thirty-one. Please fill in your own commentary for these subjects. Looks like the teams are ready..."