Cassidy went and found her girls busy checking out the guys. She predicted that it wouldn’t be long before their two groups began to pair off. She’d noted that the football players kept glancing over. Cassidy spotted the crew team captain, Andrea ‘Andy’ McNally.
When all the senior leadership had left last semester, the team had picked an incoming junior to be in charge. Andy recognized Cassidy would be the stroke, or lead rower, on the eight-woman squad, so she’d befriended Cassidy.
“It was a genius idea to get Tank to help with our training.”
“I liked his fan idea,” Cassidy admitted.
In their rowing room, Tank had them install a large fan behind the rowing machines. They set it on low to mimic them moving over the water. It made it feel much closer to actual rowing and cooled their clothes and hair—issues that cropped up in competition.
Cassidy had also been impressed by how Tank customized their training to their sport. When she’d been at Lincoln High, she’d started out conditioning the football team. She’d modified a Marine training program meant to get young men into fighting shape and developed a routine David had named sixty minutes of hell. It was a one-size-fits-all type of approach, which was what the Marines needed.
From Joey, David’s trainer in high school and future sister-in-law, Cassidy had learned that you tailored the training to the individual. That lesson had come about when they’d prepared him for baseball in his senior year. While much of what Joey had done with David translated to football, specific exercises were done to help his hitting and the like.
For the girls, Tank had added to their rowing machine work by doing some lifting. He’d focused not on over-bulk or twitch muscle (speed) exercises but on developing high-stamina power rowers.
Tank knew that there would be times when Cassidy trained David, so he’d explained to her what he wanted to do with him. Now that David had switched to quarterback, the need to bulk up to play linebacker was rolled back. Tank had explained the difference as he compared what he was doing with Bear, an offensive tackle. With Bear, he was developing brute explosive strength that would be needed to play his position. David-the-quarterback, on the other hand, had to be more agile but still strong enough to take a pounding.
There was something that did surprise her. Cassidy had always been told that the forty-yard dash was the standard for comparing speed between football players. When she’d been training the professional prospects, they’d all been focused on improving their time at that distance.
Tank had gotten all ‘sciencey,’ as David called it, and explained how football really worked. On most plays, what mattered was how fast they could move over a five-yard area. Getting off the ball with power and speed faster than their opponents won games. So Tank had banned forty-yard runs. He only allowed ten- to twenty-yard sprints.
The other reason was that the longer you ran, the more your running style changed. Tank was of the mind that players were more likely to pull a hamstring on a longer run, so he didn’t allow them in practice.
“Did you ask David if it’s okay if we use your place for off-campus activities?” Andy asked.
“Not officially, but he’s on board with me stepping into more of a leadership role. He’ll support me on having the women over,” Cassidy assured her.
“Do you think that some of the football players might also show up?”
“Are you asking if Oliver will be there?” Cassidy asked in a little singsong voice when she said his name.
David’s vodcast had spread like wildfire on campus, making Oliver a minor celebrity. His goofy, Aussie-accented, bad-boy persona had made him a popular guy. When he’d let Cassidy kick him in the nuts, it put him over the top as far as the rowing girls were concerned.
While none of them wanted him as their boyfriend, he did seem like the perfect ‘date.’ Especially if you were looking for fun in more ways than one.
“I didn’t want to presume … but …?” Andy asked.
“I’ll make you a deal. If you go on the date I promised Oliver, then I’ll make David ask him to come,” Cassidy offered.
She took squealing, clapping of hands, and dancing around as a ‘yes.’ Of course, that stopped the other girls from working out, as they wanted to know what was going on.
“Cassidy is inviting us all to her and David’s place on Friday night,” Andy announced.
While they all looked happy, there was no dancing.
“And he’ll invite the football team!” Andy added.
Cassidy ignored them as she went to lift. They were worse than David’s kids when you said the words ‘ice cream.’ Unfortunately, and also like with his kids, Cassidy knew she’d better deliver.
She was impressed that so many of the girls had shown up for this workout. Last year, group workouts had been sporadically attended at best. Then again, most of the key rowers were seniors and knew what they had to do to prepare.
The one noticeable missing teammate was Veronica Price. She was going to be their problem child. Last spring, she and a group of townies had harassed and pranked David and his friends. Veronica was more interested in finding the next party where she could be seen than she was in rowing.
Her sister, Chloe, was a freshman and wouldn’t enroll until the fall, but at least she showed up for workouts. Cassidy hoped that she was different from her older sister.
◊◊◊
After her workout, Cassidy went to find David. He was at the hydration station, talking to Bear, Jesús, Todd, and Percy.
“Don’t be mad,” Cassidy said as she walked up.
David gave the guys a look.
“Nothing good ever came from those words,” Percy predicted.
“Truthfully, their use together should be stricken from the English language,” Jesús offered.
“What did you do?” David asked.
“I invited the rowing team over for Friday night.”
“How is that any different from, say, Thursday afternoon?” David asked.
Cassidy stuck her tongue out at him. He did have a point because she basically told them they could come over whenever. David had encouraged it to help them build team spirit, so she didn’t take his comment seriously.
“I told them that you would invite the football team,” she said.
“No,” he said without hesitation.
“What?” Bear asked, saving Cassidy from having to do it.
“One of the best parts of being an adult is realizing you can stop a bad situation before it happens,” David said.
“And inviting us to a party is a bad idea?” Bear asked.
David just shrugged.
“I could blackmail you. We could play ‘Welcome to Thoroughly Embarrassing Theater,’ where this morning’s guest will begin to wish he were dead,” Cassidy said.
“Remember this one?” David asked and then mimicked her to perfection. “How was I supposed to know I looked like one of those bad Wal-Mart customer pictures people post on social media?”
At that moment, David cringed when he saw Matt Long and his girlfriend, Crystal Knaggy, come storming up.
“What the fuck, jock-tard?!”
“Oh, boy. Here we go again,” Percy mumbled under his breath.
“What’s going on?” Todd asked.
“Matt has anger issues. Somehow, I got my ass suspended for one game because he decided to have one of the linemen try to kill David for him during spring practice. He wasn’t man enough to face David himself,” Percy said, clearly still mad about it.
“Fuck you, too,” Matt said.
David put his hand on Percy’s chest to let him know that he would handle this.
“What’s your deal?” David asked Matt.
“I haven’t been able to get any sleep because of the noise you and …” Matt started when Crystal grabbed his arm, which caused him to turn and bark at her, “What?!”
“Don’t you talk to me like that!” Crystal screamed back.