We could see she was getting close to the front of the line. Alan hurried in so he could pay.
Chapter 22 – Two-A-Days
Tuesday August 26
COACH HOPE CALLED A meeting with just Brad and me before practice in his office. He didn’t look happy. To tell you the truth, none of us were.
“I just got off the phone with Jim Ball’s mother. She’s not letting Jim play football if her son can’t be assured he won’t be attacked on the football field ... by his own teammates!”
At least Brad had the decency to flinch.
“Ed and Tim have also quit. I’ve had the superintendent of schools explain in great detail that there will be no football this year if there’s another incident like yesterday. Tommy Cox has been kicked off the team and is facing further action by the school. If there’s justice in this world, he’ll be expelled. Victor and Lance have also been kicked off the team and are suspended for a week from school for their deliberate attempt to injure another player,” he told us.
They were the two who had tried to hurt Jim and caused the fight to start.
He then turned his attention to the issues between the two of us. He let it sink in how far this had gone, and the games were now over. He had tried to mend fences in Kentucky by sitting the two of us down. He wanted us to know there were real consequences for the crap Brad was pulling. I felt like I was caught in the middle.
“I don’t care what it takes. If you two can’t find a way to work together, I’m kicking you both off the team. If I have to play freshmen this year, so be it. You have until the end of the day to come up with a solution to bring this team together,” he ordered us.
I was contemplating saying a half dozen unhelpful comments like ‘I told you so, Coach,’ but my ingrained Dawson kicked in and I went quiet. I think silence at that moment saved my football career at Lincoln High. Coach Hope glared at us and neither one was going to talk. He got disgusted.
“Get out of my sight,” he told us.
I FOUND MY FAVORITE thinking tree and sat down under it. I figured there were a couple of possibilities. The first was Brad would come to his senses and do the right thing. I gave this possibility about a one percent chance. The odds for a repeat of yesterday stood at 90%, in my mind. It was becoming obvious the two groups were never going to work well together. It wouldn’t take much to set something off. I put the odds of some mystery solution, which reduced the tensions and saved the season, at a 9% chance. Maybe I should have transferred when I had the chance.
I was feeling down when Wolf found me. He can be funny when he’s not being shy. He started telling me jokes.
“Why do Washington players keep their Wunderlich results on their dashboards?” he asked, and I shook my head.
“So they can park in the handicap spaces.”
That got a little smile out of me.
“What do you get if you see an Eastside fan buried up to his neck in sand?” He asked me.
“What?” I asked.
“More sand!” he told me, and I groaned.
He had one more.
“What do you call a fan of David Dawson with half a brain?”
I could see him edging back to run.
“Gifted!” he told me, and then took off.
I chased him into the locker room. He rounded a corner to get away and I plowed into him. We stumbled and bumped one of the ass-hats’ duffle bags onto the floor. It dumped everything, so we quickly started to stuff his gear back into his bag before he saw it. Wolf stood up and was reading something. He had a pill bottle, which he handed to me. I read the label and it said ‘Anadrol 50.’
“You know what this is?” I asked Wolf.
“Yes, yes I do. They’re steroids. These are bad. They call them ‘A-Bombs.’”
“How do you know about them?” I asked.
“My cousin’s a bouncer. He and his friends did steroids. He told me about ‘A-Bombs.’ In a short period of time, you can add a hundred pounds to your bench press. But there’re some bad side effects. One of his friends messed up his liver. That’s the bad one, and it can kill you. Some other side effects are acne, hair growth in weird places, bad breath, and even boobs.”
“Holy shit! That explains Tommy Cox’s puffy nipples,” I said.
“David, this is dangerous stuff, not only to them but to others. My cousin went a little nuts and beat a guy almost to death. He was already in trouble, but the steroids sent him completely out of control. He told me he didn’t know what came over him. He says he’s quit using.”
“Man, that sucks. Do you think that’s what’s wrong with Tommy?” I asked him.
“I don’t know. But it could explain a lot. Now that I know they’re doing steroids, a lot of what’s been going on makes sense. How else could those lazy shits get so big and strong so fast?”
“I met a guy at a photo shoot who suggested I should take steroids to get bigger. He did mention they worked out at his gym. I bet they get the stuff there.”
“What do you think we should do?” he asked.
“Two things come to mind. The first is, I don’t want anything to do with them. If I want to play in college, I don’t need the stigma of steroids attached to me. I worked too hard to get into shape this year. The second is, I don’t want us turning them in. If we did, we’d have to be watching our backs the rest of the year. I guarantee we’d slip up at some point and someone would get hurt.”
“Let’s get the guys together at lunch and talk about it,” he suggested.
I agreed. The guys had a right to know what was going on. I called my mom and had her order pizzas from Monical’s for all of us. I decided only to invite our core group. Our house was going to be packed. Mom told me she would just reserve the banquet room at Monical’s instead; let them deal with the mess of cleaning up. She would just order a number of their ‘Family Pleaser’ special, which came with a family sized salad, a pitcher of soda and a large pizza. She’d add to the number of pizzas because we were growing boys.
I then called everyone who’d quit, or had been made to quit, in Jim’s case, and invited them. Wolf and I decided not to invite Bill, Trevor or Lou. They had all played with us on our seven-on-seven team and would be seniors. They successfully had gone between Brad’s group and mine. I didn’t want them to have to pick sides.
AT PRACTICE, COACH Hope told everyone basically what he told Brad and me earlier. He then ran us ragged. I was happy to see the players who’d been working out with us were doing much better than the rest. Cassidy would be proud of us. I made a point of telling them to thank her. She really did have us in top shape.
After the morning practice, Brad wouldn’t even look at me. I had a bad feeling. Everyone loaded up and we went to Monical’s to talk. The banquet room was ready when we arrived. The soda and salads were waiting for us. I asked for a pitcher of iced tea. I didn’t need all the extra sugar. I was surprised when Jim arrived with his mom. Ed and Tim also showed up with their moms. When mine showed up, I knew she’d been talking to them.
I would be concerned if my boy had been in a fight at school, so I didn’t complain but welcomed them.
“They tell us the pizzas will be out in a few minutes. Get started eating while Wolf and I give you an update on what happened this morning,” I said to kick the meeting off. “I met with Coach Hope first thing this morning. He pulled Brad and me into his office and told us pretty much what he told the team at practice.”
I then repeated it all for the benefit everyone who hadn’t been there.
“He further told Brad and me if we couldn’t come up with a solution by the end of the day, the two of us would be kicked off the team.”