“Yes, that must be it. Anyways, I heard that Jimmy Alton bagged her over the summer.”
This was news. I had been out of the loop, but Jimmy Alton was a known liar.
“Are we talking about the same Jimmy Alton who’s a bigger dork than we are?”
“Well, yes,” Alan admitted.
“The same Jimmy Alton who said you stole his lunch box last year?”
“The F-in’ liar!” Alan exclaimed, showing his anger at the false claim.
“Exactly my point.”
Alan suddenly got it.
“Well, she’s still a slut.”
“Alan, I’m about a minute away from smacking you. Peggy’s a good friend of mine, and unless you have some proof, I’m going to take offense.”
“Sorry.”
The rest of the day Alan was subdued. Jeff asked what his deal was and I told him what was up. Jeff just gave me a knowing look and we dropped it. Later that day in the hall, I heard a smack.
“Ow! What was that for?” Alan’s voice cracked, making it even funnier.
I just grinned. My avenging angel had just taken care of it.
Chapter 3 – Makeover
Wednesday August 28
Last night I had my physical and they cleared me for football. I was now officially six feet and a half inch tall and weighed 187 pounds. The doctor confirmed my growth spurt had slowed down; he felt I would end up at six-one or six-two, probably by Christmas.
I found my commitment to read ahead had helped me understand more during my class lectures. After my first two classes, I stopped raising my hand with answers when everyone started to look at me strangely. I didn’t want the ‘nerd’ label to carry over from middle school, but I wasn’t going to dumb it down if called upon.
In third period, I received a note that said I should to report to the training room at lunchtime to get my football equipment checked out. I grabbed a sandwich and skipped lunch with the gang. Being a freshman, and the last one to get equipment, I got the worst of the lot.
PE was a surprise. Coach Engels explained that football players were required to do strength and conditioning. So today was the last day of swimming.
AFTER SCHOOL, I SUITED up for football. Coach Engels waited for me on the field.
“Dawson, get over here.”
I trotted up. Bert Nelson had just fumbled the ball, and I have to admit it brought a small smirk to my face. The defense high-fived each other and danced over Bert.
“Go in for Bert.”
“Sir?”
He jerked my facemask, so we were just inches apart.
“Do I have to repeat myself?”
I just jogged out to the huddle. Mike Herndon was our quarterback. I looked at Mike and he gave me a disgusted look. I didn’t blame him. I’d never played organized football and all these guys knew it. I was always the slightly overweight nerd, as far as these guys were concerned. I hated to ask, but I had no idea what position Bert played.
“What’s my position and what do you want me to do?”
Mike popped his head out of the huddle and looked at coach as if to say, ‘Are you kidding me?’
“Run veer right!” Coach yelled.
At least I knew what the veer option was. I loved watching it. It’s a simple concept. The quarterback reads the defense and decides where the ball will go. When done right it’s impossible to stop. It was designed for teams who are intelligent and quick. Most times the quarterback would line up under center to take the snap. The fullback and tailback would line up in an I-formation. He would put the ball into the fullback’s stomach and ride him down the line to see if the fullback had an opening. If he did, he would release the ball and the fullback would take it from there. If the linebacker filled the gap, then the quarterback would pull the ball and work his way down the line.
The critical block was the tackle. He had to block his player for the veer to work. This left the defensive end to cover two players at the line of scrimmage. The quarterback would read the end, and if he closed on him, he would pitch the ball to the tailback. If the end cheated out to cover the tailback, the quarterback tucked the ball and ran up field. It was like a magic show of where’s-the-football.
Mike took pity on me.
“David, you’re playing fullback. You’ll line up in the I-formation in front of Jake. We’re running the veer option. I’ll ride you into the hole and I’m going to give you the ball. Your job is to score. On two, BREAK!”
I looked across the line and saw the middle linebacker, Tim Foresee, as he cheated to the right. Hell, the defense had a huge advantage because they knew where the ball was supposed to go. I would be creamed. I suddenly felt sorry for Bert.
“Down! Set! Hut, Hut!”
I exploded out of my stance and Mike slapped the ball into my stomach. Mike saw the wall of defenders come and just let go to save himself, the bastard. I figured ‘what the heck’ and exploded into Tim. I didn’t just hit him, I ran through him. Later I heard that you could hear the crack of pads clear over at the varsity practice. It was beyond the normal crack you heard in a play. It was the kind of noise that made everyone turn to see what had just happened.
Tim bounced off me, stunned, and I just kept churning my legs. I plowed through the grasp of the wall of defenders and broke free. The free safety had me dead-to-rights and I decided to run him over too. I got low and I think he had the same idea. There was another tremendous crack and I just spun off him and trotted into the end zone.
There was stunned silence. I looked back. The safety and Tim were laid out, and the trainer sprinted onto the field to make sure they were okay.
Next thing I knew there was pandemonium. Mike and the rest of the offense sprinted to me, jumped up and down, and slapped my helmet. They all grinned like idiots.
“Holy crap man, that was awesome!” Mike declared.
“I just did what you told me.”
Coach Engels decided we were done with scrimmage for the rest of the day. He didn’t want to lose any other defenders. He had Mike, Jake and me work on running the veer option. By the end of practice, I started to understand what I was supposed to do.
Then I think Coach thought it was a good idea to kill me. He took me aside and had me run conditioning drills for the rest of practice. It was obvious to everyone that missing two weeks of practice meant you weren’t in football shape. When I finally collapsed, everyone else had left and it was just Coach and the trainer.
The trainer was a cute girl just out of college, Ms. Becky Grimes. I was still getting used to my new body and there were times I wasn’t very coordinated. Becky stopped me and wanted to check me out. I noticed my shoulder was sore from hitting Tim. It should be; Tim outweighed me by fifteen pounds.
“When you get home put ice on the shoulder, and I want you to drink plenty of fluids to rehydrate and to flush your system. If you don’t, you won’t be able to walk in the morning.”
After that, the trainer headed to the locker room. Coach Engels stopped me to talk.
“I just want you know that you surprised me today.”
“You and me both, Coach.”
“Look, I stuck my neck out to let you play.”
I was shocked. Coach put his hands up to stop me from saying anything.
“I know you had some trouble last spring. That’s exactly the kind of trouble I don’t need when I’m putting together a football team, but on John’s recommendation I’m letting you play. Please don’t disappoint either John or myself.”
“No, sir. I won’t let you down.”
“Good. Tomorrow I want you to make time to meet with Ms. Kim. She’s going to put together a strength and conditioning plan to help you with your coordination.”
I just nodded.
“Now go hit the showers.”
AFTER PRACTICE, I WAS supposed to meet Greg for a ride home. He was picking up Cindy from cheerleading practice, which ended about the same time as I finished. As I walked out to meet Greg, I felt a hip bump me and I almost stumbled.