“You’re going to be a freshman this year, if I remember correctly,” I said, and Roc nodded in confirmation. I turned to Zoe. “What grade are you in?”
“I’m a junior, and you?” she asked.
“I’ll be a junior this year, as will Pam. Are you guys going to be homeschooled again?”
They both nodded and didn’t appear happy about it. It was such a shame Zoe wouldn’t be going to school with me. I felt bad for Roc, too. I remembered spending the summer at my Uncle John’s farm. It could be lonely. Then I had an idea on how to get Zoe to go to school at Lincoln High with me.
“Roc, why don’t you see about playing football with me? Do you think your parents would let you come to Lincoln to play ball?” I asked.
He seemed to brighten up. Then Zoe scowled.
“You’re not leaving me here by myself,” she told Roc.
He was obviously crestfallen. I turned to her.
“Why not join him? I’d be happy to introduce you to my friends. I’d probably have to borrow Roc’s shotgun to keep the guys away, but I think you’d like it.”
Pam gave me a look as she seemed to figure out my plan.
“I don’t know. We could ask,” Zoe conceded.
I went with them as they found their parents. As I suspected, all the farmers back in this area were having a hog roast. Of course, Pam and I were invited to stay and have a late lunch. I took Pam around, and we met everyone. We then filled our plates up with all the food everyone had brought. We found an empty picnic table under a large maple tree and ate. This had turned into an almost perfect day.
◊◊◊
While we finished eating, Roc and Zoe were having a conversation with their parents. I figured it would be best to stay out of it.
“So?” Pam said.
I gave her my confused face. I didn’t give anything away about my attraction to Zoe. There was just something about a farm girl that turned me on. While she didn’t quite hold a candle to Pam’s California-surfer-girl look, she was very cute in her cutoffs and tight t-shirt. Her innocence and her upbringing were also attractive to me. I’m sure that would surprise some people, knowing my history with girls. I think most guys would admit they would love to date someone like Pam and then marry Zoe. I know it wasn’t necessarily right, but I try to be honest.
“Don’t act stupid, you know what I’m asking,” Pam said.
“Actually, there are several things you could be asking. Maybe you could help narrow it down for me.”
“What’s up with you and Zoe? I saw you making arrangements so she’d go to Lincoln.”
“You saw how much they hate homeschooling. I was only trying to help them out. Plus, Roc was always a good athlete. I think he’d enjoy playing freshman football,” I said.
Pam gave me a look, one that told me I better come clean.
“You saw her in those shorts,” I whined.
“Are you telling me she has a better butt than I do?” Pam asked as her eyebrows climbed into her hairline.
“Pam, you have a world-class butt. I would pull over for you any time, any place,” I assured her.
Pam looked at me skeptically. I prayed I had dodged that bullet. Then she gave me a serious look.
“David, we’re friends, right?” she asked, and I nodded to her. “Tell me what’s going on. I can tell you’re not happy. Talk to me.”
“Honestly, I’m a mess, but I’ll get over it. Growing up I had three best friends: Alan, Jeff, and Tami. In only a couple of weeks I lost Jeff and Tami broke my heart. Jeff was always the quiet one who steadied us. You know Alan, he’s a spaz on steroids sometimes. Tami was our den mother, and I was, well, you know me. Without Jeff and Tami around, I might actually end up killing Alan,” I said as Pam just shook her head.
“We all grew up together,” I continued. “I never imagined having to face life without them. I could always count on the four of us being together.”
I suddenly found I couldn’t talk. My throat seemed to tighten up, and I was on the verge of breaking down when a voice in the back of my head said, ‘oh, grow a pair and move on.’ The voice was right. I would always remember Jeff and honor his life. Tami I loved enough to let go. I wished her the best in whatever she did, but quite frankly I needed to move the hell on. Then something funny happened after I gave myself a mental beatdown: I felt myself relax.
My new reality needed to be me moving forward. I had a lot to accomplish this year. We would win our second State Championship in football. I would continue to get good grades and do what was needed to be prepared for college. The SAT test could be taken in the spring. I planned on being ready to do well on that.
I also wanted to explore baseball seriously. That had been my game growing up, and I needed to see if I could play it at a high level. I’d always dreamed of playing shortstop for the Chicago Cubs, and when I helped them win a World Series, that would really be something. Of course, Tami had explained that it would only happen if she played second base and carried my lousy butt.
If my boyhood dream of playing baseball didn’t pan out, I would get serious about football. Not that I hadn’t been developing my skills, but I had neglected the next step: figuring out where to go to college. I’d formulated a plan to tackle that. The key was that I wanted it to be fun, too. I wanted to play ball in college with Tim, Ty, Jim, and Wolf. If the planets aligned, I would like to play with Bill at USC. My idea to include Tami in my decision was now abandoned. If she planned on moving on, I would let her.
My movie would be out around Christmastime. The studio had been in touch with Kendal to block off my time right before and after the release. They wanted me to go to both LA and New York City and do the talk-show circuit and press tour. Range Sports wanted me at the same time, but Kendal told me Sandy understood I had other commitments.
Kent, Craig Wild’s publicist/agent, had been in touch with Kendal about the next two movies in the Star Academy series. All the agents for the four main characters had agreed to let Kent negotiate for all of us. He said we’d all sit down in LA before the film’s release and firm up a summer shoot.
Some of the numbers they had bandied around made me nervous. Kent had explained that Sandra Bullock had received $20 million up front for her film Gravity. She also had made more on the back end with the ten points she negotiated. The film earned an estimated $710 million worldwide, so she’d made close to $90 million for that film. Kent didn’t expect that kind of money. However, if he could get us points on the back end of our contracts, it would assure us a big payday if the trilogy ended up making crazy money. Gravity wasn’t a big success in the US, but worldwide it had rocked.
The downside was that if it were a flop, points wouldn’t help very much. John Travolta made a movie called Battlefield Earth for which he would have been paid $20 million. He agreed to a $10 million salary and an extra $15 million if the movie surpassed $55 million in ticket sales. Battlefield Earth foundered at the box office and only totaled $21.5 million. Travolta ‘only’ made the original $10 million on the deal.
By the first of the year, I might be well on my way to being able to retire before graduating high school. The only catch in my plans for making ‘walk-away money’ was the following week, Star Wars would release their next blockbuster. The studio had placed our movie at the beginning of the holiday season with the hope we got out of the gate quickly. If we did, we could be the alternative when Star Wars was packed, but you still wanted to see a movie. The studio thought we could ride their coattails and make extra money.
I finally looked at Pam, and she gave me a funny look in return.
“How do you do it? How do you get past a broken heart?” she asked.