I followed her back to the table so I could spend time with my friends. Brook grabbed my hand, and I sat back and took everything in. This just felt right. I’d found the girl for me, football was looking up, and I was surrounded by friends and family. I could hardly wait to see how this year turned out.
◊◊◊ Saturday August 27
Brook and I had finally planned some time together. The only problem was that my security was Cassidy. If it had been Paul or Chuck, I could have told them to guard the door or something. Cassidy was more hanging out with us than guarding me. At least she let me drive my Demon. Paul and Chuck were a little too possessive of my new car.
I pulled up at the Davis estate and honked.
“You better let her have shotgun,” I told Cassidy as I saw the expression on Brook’s face.
“Next time, you might want to go to the door,” Cassidy suggested as she got out of the car to let Brook in.
The Demon was a two-door, so Cassidy had to squeeze into the back. It didn’t have the same room the Charger had.
“My mom is starting to wonder if it’s a good idea that you’re my boyfriend. I mean, with the way you honk and expect me to jump and run to the car,” Brook shared.
“Next time you talk to your mom, just remind her that I’m David Dawson,” I said with a straight face.
“It’s a good thing that I know you or we wouldn’t last very long,” Brook said, shaking her head.
“Did you see Don, the new guy?” Cassidy asked Brook.
“You do know he’s Destiny’s brother, right?” Brook shot back.
“He’s kind of cute. David, do you think he’ll ask me out?” Cassidy asked.
“If I get him to ask you out, will you allow Brook and me to have our day together?” I asked.
She smiled and nodded. I checked, and my phone had connected with the Bluetooth they’d added to my car. When I’d gotten it, it only had a driver’s seat and no bells and whistles, since it was a prototype car. Dad and the Sullivans had helped finish it out for me.
“Call Don Crown,” I said, and moments later could hear the ringing through the car speakers.
“David?” asked a sleepy voice as he answered.
“Sorry to call you so early, but I need you to do something for me. I need you to ask Cassidy Hope out on a date,” I said.
“I doubt she even knows who I am. Besides, her dad might not be happy with that,” Don worried.
I realized that I’d dodged a bullet. If he’d said something negative, I might have one unhappy girl. Plus, she’d put him down in the hall.
“Uh, Don? You’re on speakerphone and Brook, and Cassidy are in the car,” I warned him.
“Oh … uh, hi!”
“Don, just ask her out already,” I said.
“Oh … okay.”
We all waited.
“Don?” I prodded.
“Sorry, I was trying to figure out what we would do tonight,” Don admitted.
“Why don’t you let her decide? Just ask.”
“Cassidy, would you go out with me?” Don asked.
“What do you have planned?” Cassidy asked.
“Cassidy, just say ‘yes,’ and when he wakes up later, he can call you,” I said.
“Yes,” Cassidy said.
“I’m not really sure what there is to do here. Can you help me out?” Don asked, wising up.
“We’ll go on a double date with David and Brook,” Cassidy said.
Brook and I just looked at each other. I’d forgotten about Coach Hope’s rules.
Cassidy chatted with Don all the way to Lincoln Flight School. Brook had a training session with Roy Tyro, our instructor. He was also going to get me started.
“Hey, Brook, David, and …” Roy said as we walked in.
“Cassidy,” Brook supplied.
“Cassidy,” Roy said as he shook her hand too. “I’m going to take Brook up so she can log some hours in the cockpit. While she does that, I want to throw the two of you into the flight simulator and run you through some tutorials to familiarize you. My hope is that it’ll help you get started and save you money on me teaching you one-on-one.”
He set us up in one of the flight simulators and suggested I get Laminar Research’s X-Plane software. Roy told me that it could save me several hours of flight instruction. Cassidy joined me as my copilot. Brook and Roy left so she could go fly.
Cassidy and I ran through several tutorials and started to get bored.
“Let’s skip to actually flying,” she suggested.
I agreed, and we jumped several tutorials and started the one at the end where you took off and landed your plane. On my first attempt, I was glad this wasn’t real. I didn’t get the aircraft up to speed and crashed into a fence at the end of a runway. The next attempt, I gave it plenty of gas but jerked the yoke back. The plane ended up trying to go almost straight up, stalled when the airspeed dropped, and exploded on the runway.
“You suck,” Cassidy observed.
I gave her a hard look, and she just smiled.
On the next try, I got off the ground and started to have some fun. All of a sudden, a buzzer started to go off.
“What the hell’s that?” I asked.
Cassidy looked at the red flashing light.
“Proximity alert,” she read, and then we were hit by a huge jet that was landing.
Over the next half hour, Cassidy and I died in several spectacular ways. It was almost like the simulator was trying to kill us. We ran out of gas, lightning hit our plane, we slammed into a mountain, and the list went on.
Finally, Cassidy had had enough.
“Let me try,” she ordered.
I quietly sat and waited to die as she took off and calmly flew the plane. She could even get us landed. We bounced a few times, but we lived through the flight. She looked at me like I was an idiot. I calmly took off my headset and stomped out of the simulator.
As I exited, I heard laughter coming from an office. I made a beeline to it and found several young guys who looked like they were in college. The group was in front of a computer terminal.
“Sorry, man. They pulled that trick on us when we started. When we heard a newbie was going to use a simulator, we couldn’t help ourselves.”
It turned out they were students at State who were taking a flying class. From the terminal they were at, they could cause problems to arise in the simulated flight, and you had to figure out how to solve them.
“At least I know about every way I can die now,” I said.
“Believe me; there are many more. Sorry about that. I hope you’re okay with the prank we pulled.”
“I’m good,” I said. “Would it be okay if we were actually able to fly for a while?” I asked.
“We’ll leave you alone. Have fun,” they said, and then packed up to go back to school.
I walked back in and found Cassidy flying.
“This isn’t that hard,” she offered.
“I guess not everything comes easy for me.”
“It’s okay, I’ll help you learn,” she offered.
I thought about telling her what the college kids had been doing, but decided against it. I’d give her this one.
◊◊◊
Since no one would plan the date, I took control. The four of us drove to a new seafood place over in Washington. Mary Dole had told me about the restaurant after Tom took her there. They flew in fresh Alaskan crab legs for Saturday night. I called, and they were booked up until I told them who I was. They said they could get us in if I agreed to have my picture taken and put on their wall.
My first stop was at Don’s house because Brook made some veiled threats about what would happen if she saw Don’s sister. I figured we needed to calm things down some because Brook wasn’t generally like this. I’d driven my mom’s Cadillac because it was the best double-date car. When Don got in, he looked worried.
“My sister is freaking out. I let it slip that we were double-dating,” he said as soon as his butt hit the seat.
“Relax. We aren’t going to try to turn you against your sister. I bet if she’d cool down, she would find that she and Brook have a lot in common. They might even become friends.”