Chapter 10

"Care to tell me why you have been sent to my office Mr. Faulk?" Mrs. Gausse, Dean of Student Affairs at the high school asked as she took the seat opposite my own at the table in her office not bothering with her desk.

She was one of three vice principals the school kept on hand. She was a no-non-sense woman in her late forties; if the rumors from other students were true then she had been an athlete in this very school when she was my age. Now she had lost her skinny frame putting on some meat along with a healthy dose of gray giving her salt and pepper hair. The other two Mr. Pierce and Mr. Minke were off somewhere for a meeting or something.

Of the three vice principals at the high school Mrs. Gausse was the worst to sit in front of when you had done something wrong according to the rumors from other students. That was why I was here now not that I had done anything wrong. I finally had to defend myself on school property. The strange thing was I did not defend myself from another guy at school but from one of the up and coming stars on the volleyball team. The reason I even had need to defend myself was due to my own stupidity as I forgot the saying that was attributed to Benjamin Franklin, saying, "Two people can keep a secret so long as one of them was dead."

In my case it was not that someone or more specifically Heather talked, what gave us away was the smell in her room that gave Heather and me away. It was to one or more of her friends that had shown up that day that started the rumor mill moving. Heather of course said nothing as per our agreement but that did nothing to dissuade Connie, Lisa, Beth and the one sophomore in the group that could drive, Sage, from telling their friends what they smelled and suspected had gone on between Heather and myself.

For myself being a guy everyone gave me a pass on the event if not an atta boy from the guys I knew. Heather on the other hand had a sister that was a junior on the volleyball team and since her season was over she now had time to make it hard on her sister and she reported to her parents what was being said in school about Heather and me. Heather's parents of course grounded her and even my mom got a call from them informing her of what we were doing. The fact that none of it was true to that point did not matter to anyone. As for Heather I did not see her in the mornings as she had returned to her morning gymnastics routine. The only times I did see her was in class and we were separated by her friends. We did get to talk every once in a while and she expressed her frustration at not getting any time for herself which of course meant time for us to be together. In the end she kept her word never saying a word about what I had done and had even managed to get me an envelope that held the balance of what she owed me.

That brought me to my current predicament with the volleyball team, looking at Mrs. Gausse, I replied, "I made a statement then I was attacked and I was forced to defend myself."

"What did you say that provoked Ms. Galvez to attack you?" she asked.

"Well to start with she was implying that I could not satisfy a woman since I am forbidden to see a girl I liked. In response I agreed with her saying that the rumors I had heard there was no way that I could satisfy a woman like she could. When I said that she tried to slap me which I blocked, since she was off balance from my blocking her swing at me it was easy to trip her," I stated.

"Why exactly did you say that?" she asked staring directly at me.

"Others have been saying that those things between girls have been going on with the girls volleyball team. All I did was put a voice to the rumor," the last I said with a smile as her own face had gone pale with my revelation.

We continued that way for another few minutes as she probed from whom I had heard it from but I simply stated that I did not have names of individuals only that it was well established among the PE classes. After that I was dismissed without a suspension for fighting pending further investigation. When I exited her office I could see my antagonist was sitting there waiting, seeing me she simply smirked at me as I walked by. I however restrained myself from saying or doing anything as Mrs. Gausse was behind me. Leaving the office I heard her say, "Ms. Galvez my office."

The rest of the day was quiet as far as the administration was concerned. The student body was a different matter as rumors and guesses passed for facts about the non-fight so that by the time the bell rang signaling the end of the day my push "heard around the world" had made it through the school grapevine and turned what was a simple shove to keep her off balance into a brawl with me versus the volleyball team.

Stepping into the locker room to get dressed for our first game I realized that my escapades with the volleyball team were not even on their radar as most of the players were sitting there looking defeated already. Asking around as to what was going on I discovered that most of my team mates had played against our opponent before and they were a physically intimidating team with two freshmen already over six feet four inches in height. As the rest of the team wandered in I knew we were in trouble as Burt, Joshua and Brian were the only ones not looking totally scared sitting there waiting for the coach to show up. When he did get into the locker room I could see that he recognized the problem he had and after a couple of minutes of going over our game plan he sent us out to warm up while we waited for our opponents to show up.

Returning to the locker room for our pregame pep talk, I along with the coach could see the anxiety except for my three teammates plus me. Calling for our attention he did what he could to get us to focus, reminding us of the drills we worked on for defense and how we ran the offense. Looking around the locker room as he was talking I could see that a few of my team mates were not looking as scared as they had when we came into the locker room. When the buzzer sounded for us to return to the floor, coach finished his speech and named another guard Sam as our fifth. Taking the floor for our warm ups we had only started doing our passing drills when there was a cheer in the bleachers. Looking at the bench for the excitement I followed where they were looking and I could see one of the giants hanging from the rim and the ball was bouncing away. None of us had seen what had happened but the referees did and before the game even started, their player was called for a technical foul for what we realized was performing a slam dunk before the game. Their coach or course protested but that only lasted a second before his players were laughing and giving each other high fives in celebration. When the ref asked for someone to shoot the coach gave Sam the chance to put us in the lead before the game even began as Sam was as good as I was at shooting free throws.

While the rest of the team was watching Sam, the coach pulled me aside saying, "I have watched you play and I know that you have been holding back. Coach Bentley over there put his player up to that to get an edge; well two can play at that game. I want you to take the ball away every time it touches the floor, no mercy make them worry about the ball every time they put the ball on the floor. Two can play at this game do I make myself clear?" his eyes boring into mine

All I could do was nod my head and smile. I knew what I could do and this was going to be a game for the highlight reels. Once Sam returned to us after making both baskets coach reminded us to make sure everyone had a man to cover if he changed what we were doing for defense. For now he gave us a loose two-one-two with Sam and me given permission to go out and challenge the dribbler. For what it was worth we did our cheer and the five of us stepped out on the floor and as we were told we picked up our assignments and stood by for the jump ball. I could see that the guys who claimed that we would be facing a pair of six foot four freshmen did not take into account that the last time they had seen them was the previous summer and these guys were like trees now. How tall I would not find out until later but from where I was standing they were taller than that.

That thought was all I had time for as the referee stepped into the middle and after a quick look at his partner tossed the ball into the air and the game was underway. If the jump ball was any indication it would have given a distinct advantage to our opponents as their center was not only very tall for a freshman but he was also quick and had already tapped the ball back towards his guard before Burt even got off the ground. As the point guard my position would normally be in the back to receive the tipped ball but with the orders of my coach in my head I had moved up to the middle and when their center tapped the ball I was already moving to intercept the ball as my senses told me which way he was going to tap the ball. The guard was standing waiting to receive the ball when I intercepted the ball moving behind him for an easy layup and we were up four to nothing.

Thinking that I was nothing more than lucky their center headed back to inbound the ball. Not wanting them to get nervous yet I stayed off of the guard long enough for the center to move past him when I had his timing down I waited and as he looked up court for a pass I moved and took the ball away a second time and with only two dribbles of my own had another layup. Watching them inbound the ball again I could see how sloppy their passing was and I made a mental note that the next time down I would take the inbound pass away. For now I harried the dribbler and once the center moved past us I closed with my man causing him to pick up his dribble. When that happened I backed off covered the center as he was the closest player that could get the ball. There was confusion at first as no one on either team expected the guard to pick up his dribble and in that confusion the other guard went back to get the pass. That was what I was waiting for since no one on either team had a clue to how fast I was it was easy to intercept the pass again this time right after it had left his hands. Three dribbles on my part and we were up eight to zero. On their next possession the other guard came back to help but this time I intercepted the inbound pass, moving to the basket for yet another layup the center came out to challenge me and I will give him credit he did reject my shot with authority but since he ran into me doing it he got the foul and I got the chance to make the score ten to nothing.

Before I got the chance to take my shots the other coach called a time out. Heading towards my bench I relaxed then I realized that for as few fans as we had that would show up for a freshman game they were mighty loud. Not only were they loud but the players on the bench were all smiles and congratulated all of us when we made it to our seats. Our coach of course reminded everyone to stay sharp and be ready to execute our plays. Looking at me he suggested that I let them bring the ball up a couple of times before I pin them in their own end again.

When the buzzer sounded that is what we did and with only normal pressure they managed to get the ball to their center and with one drop step and two handed dribble he went up and made the score ten to two. Looking around after I took the inbound pass I realized that they were not going to pressure me like I was doing to them. Not that it would have done them a lot of good since I was able to read their intentions. It was only after I called the first play and passed off to the right winger that he challenged me as I moved towards the net. With Burt setting up the screen we had worked on in practice I drove my defender into him, and since I was open and moving towards the basket I had a return pass for a give and go, headed for the basket. Knowing that their other tree was right behind me I pulled up taking the shot as he plowed into me from behind sending both of us to the floor and me back to the line to make it thirteen as my shot had gone in when I was hammered from behind. When we headed down the court the score was still twelve to two as I had missed my shot.

The next several possessions allowed them to narrow our lead down to two. With three minutes left in the quarter I finally got the signal from the coach to light them up again which I did after they tried to inbound the ball with a lazy bounce pass to the guard which I took to the hoop again with the center stepping in bounds to challenge me. This time I was ready for his hit and as easy as I could switched hands making the basket left handed and drawing the foul. When I headed up the court we were up by seven. Thinking about what Steve had mentioned to me before about shaking their confidence I laid back this time and let them set up their play which was going to be a pass to their wing and then a bounce pass inside. I knew that since they had done the same thing on their previous four possessions. Only now when their forward who had set up on my side made his move to the middle found me waiting for him and before he knew it I intercepted his one bounce dribble. Looking up the floor I could see that Sam had moved away from his man and was now streaking down the floor. For my part I put the ball out in front of him, with only the one guard trying to catch up he had his first layup of the game. When the buzzer sounded ending the quarter we were up by fourteen and we all were feeling good.

The problem was and we knew it was that we were coming out and a new five players were going out onto the floor. We all knew this as the coach had told us when we were assigned to the freshmen squad. He explained it saying that he always took as many players as he could since not everyone would stay with the team and everyone got a chance. With fifteen of us on the team only the best five from the previous three quarters would make it onto the floor to finish the game out. The exception being injuries or when the coach wanted to talk to one of the players then we would sub in for a minute while he talked to the player taken out. That plan only lasted for about five possessions as all of us on the bench could see that our friends who replaced us were not up to the challenge of taking their guards out of the game let alone their big men inside. The first change was to some of the players that would take over after the half but when that did not slow down their big men it was back to me with less than two minutes left in the half. His instructions to me was to cause as much havoc as I could with the time remaining since we were now down by eight.