In the meantime, David was making a concerted effort to become friends with his teammates. He had some catching up to do, but his outgoing personality was making inroads. It made David realize that he missed the social aspects of football. While he enjoyed baseball, there was a different bond created when playing football. There was no more special bonding experience than two teammates bashing into each other one minute, only to pick each other up the next and laugh about it.
Friday morning found David flying with the baseball team to Salt Lake City for a three-game series with Utah. David wasn’t looking forward to the weather. The day’s forecast called for a high of 60 and a low of 37. He’d bought himself a heavy USC jacket for the occasion.
The previous day, David had met with Margaret, his tutor. Midterms were coming up, and she wanted to make sure he was ready. They’d been seeing each other once a week, but she’d asked to meet him for an extra session. Margaret shared some of the favorite topics each of his professors liked to cover on their tests. He now had a list of subject areas to study while he was away on his trip.
After they lifted off, David pulled out his stats book and put his earbuds in. Andres was sitting next to him and shook his head at David studying. He tapped David’s arm to get his attention, which caused him to pull out his earbuds.
“Everyone will be going crazy next week doing that. Relax and enjoy the weekend.”
“I don’t plan on being one of the players who’re scrambling to make a high enough grade to stay eligible. I like to be prepared,” David shot back.
“Want to know a secret?” Andres asked. David could see that he wasn’t going to shut up until David let him talk, so he nodded. “By Thursday, everyone will be in serious need of stress relief.”
“And?”
“If you’re into anyone who’s at the players gate ... just saying.”
“You’re kidding, right?” David asked.
“Nope. Happens after midterms and finals. Especially finals. Even if you have zero skills picking up chicks, you get lucky. Start thinking about who you want to spend some time with.”
“I’m confused.”
“That’s why I’m here, to help my freshman brethren understand the mysteries of life. What confuses you, young one?” Andres offered graciously.
“There are girls you want to seal the deal with, and you haven’t?” David asked Andres with an over-the-top shocked look. “I just smile at them.”
Andres and his trigger words. He might have to take a class on sensitivity to others’ feelings. David planned to call the athletic department on Monday to see if he could get his teammate enrolled in the next one.
“Tell me more about stress-relief sex,” David said to throw his friend a bone.
“After everyone has their last test, they start drinking. It gets pretty wild. We’ll have a big party Thursday night at the Baseball House. I think Mason’s record was being with four different women in one day. We’ll need someone to carry on the tradition and hopefully break the record.”
“I can’t get wrecked Thursday. I’m going to a swanky fundraiser and have to get all dressed up and be on my best behavior,” David said.
“What about Friday?”
“My brothers are flying in. I’m planning to spend time with them before we go to my place in Canada for spring break.”
“I didn’t know you had brothers.”
“Two,” David explained. “My older brother, Greg, is your age. Back in the day, he was a rock star. I think he dated every good-looking girl at our high school. My younger brother, Phil, is a junior. His sophomore year, he dated the model Jill Lacier.”
“Who?” Andres asked.
David pulled out his phone, did a quick Internet search, and then showed Andres her picture.
“Bullshit!”
“What can I say? He’s a Dawson. You should see the girl Greg’s dating.”
“Show me,” Andres ordered.
“She was my athletic trainer in high school,” David shared as he pulled up a picture of Joey. She was in formfitting shorts and a half tank top, showing off her killer abs as she worked out one of his old teammates.
“Our trainers never looked like that.”
“The woman’s a sadist. She constantly found new and creative ways to try to kill me as slowly and as painfully as possible. I admit, though, I was never in better shape. I still can’t believe that she picked my brother over me.”
“Your brother must have some serious game. You should bring them both over to the house on Friday. I could put the word out to the Alpha Mus that we want to try to break Mason’s one-day record and that there will be three Dawsons vying for the title,” Andres suggested.
“My publicist would love it. I try not to do public stuff like that to give him gray hair. Besides, he charges a ridiculous amount whenever there’s a scandal.”
“The guy needs a new beach house,” Andres teased.
“I need a new beach house, thank you very much,” David shot back. “I don’t plan to fund his any more than I already am.
“What if you just happened to drop in?” Andres tried.
“I don’t know what the plans are, so put us down as a maybe. I don’t want to commit to coming and then bail on you,” David explained.
“Okay, I’ll take that.”
“Now, can I get back to studying?”
“I still contend that you’re doing it all wrong. Part of going to college is learning how to pull an all-nighter. The trick, then, is to stay awake during your exam. Being prepared makes no sense to me,” Andres said.
“I’m ignoring you now,” David said as he put his earbuds back in.
The baseball team totally sucked. The Trojans dropped all three games, and it felt like they were just going through the motions. The Utes knocked them out of first place in the Pac-12, and hated cross-town rival UCLA now sat on top of the standings.
Coach Deneau called them all together before they left for the airport to fly back to LA.
“I know that you’re upset about how the weekend went. I’m confused because I know you’re a better team than you showed this weekend. Unfortunately, losing is part of the game. If you never failed, you wouldn’t see what you had to do to improve.
“When I was playing in college, my coach taught me that the hardest thing to do was to compete all out, each and every game. When you learn the killer instinct to fight through it, that’s when the extraordinary begins to happen. I want you to go home and think about what you need to do to get better before our next game on Tuesday.
“This week is midterms. You have to take care of business on the baseball field and do the same in the classroom. If you need help, see your tutors. If you find that you can’t make practice, call Coach Burris. Otherwise, I expect to see you on Monday,” Coach Deneau said.
David sought out Coach Burris before they left the locker room.
“I know you have football practice. You’re excused on Monday. I’ll see you at the game on Tuesday,” Coach Burris said before David could say anything.
“Thanks. I just wanted to make sure.”
“Oh, and David?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Coach Deneau wasn’t talking about you. You had a good weekend. Keep up the good work.”
David nodded at his parting shot. It was good to be reassured that the coaches noticed.
When David got home, he jumped onto video chat so he could talk to his kids.
In between some nearly incomprehensible stories, he’d learned that the problems at daycare had gone way down. Since Cassidy had been working with the little monsters, the older kids had figured out it didn’t pay to be a bully. It was no longer only Coby who would take a swipe at someone. Carol, Dawson, and Dave had joined their brother in defending the other kids at daycare at one point or another.