“I’ll keep that in mind. Call John and cheer him up. I’ve got to go, or I’ll be late for class.”
She hung up. It was still too early for normal people to be on the phone, but I wasn’t going back to sleep. I got up and decided to go for a long run.
BETWEEN CLASSES, I called Chuck (my security guy), and he took care of getting the pepper spray. He got them small containers that attached to their key chains. It would be there by the time they got home from classes. I called John and consoled him about Karen not wanting to go out with him anymore. He did tell me that his pledge class was in a lot of trouble. Some of them were mad at Nancy, but he figured everything would be okay.
At lunch, Maggie was back eating with us. She brought some guy I’d never seen before. Wayne made a point of talking to me about it. I think he thought I’d put the new guy through the same treatment he got.
“Aren’t you going to go all big-brother with Maggie’s new guy?”
“Why should I? She isn’t interested in him. Plus, she isn’t one of the cheerleaders,” I said.
He just sputtered. Maggie was a game-player. If I took her guy aside and quizzed him, I’d be playing right into her hands. I chuckled when word obviously got back to her and she sat in the surprised guy’s lap. I was going to have to talk to Wayne about being a little rat.
I had another chuckle when Emma told me that they’d found rides for Friday night. I knew the girls could figure it out if they tried. My phone rang.
“This is David,” I said.
“Hey, stranger, what are you doing Sunday?” Kendal asked.
“The usuaclass="underline" running, going to church, having brunch with my parents, and then watching football with Dad,” I said, filling her in on my busy schedule.
“Want to make a lot of money?” she asked.
I had instituted a ‘no modeling’ rule during football season. The weekend was the only time I could do it. That was also when I looked the worst with bruising. Plus, I needed some time away from everything, so I had very little interest in Kendal’s offer to make money.
“Will you take ‘no’ now, or do I have to act like I’m listening to you and then say ‘no’?”
“You have to listen to me.”
I handed the phone to Emma.
“Here, listen to my agent and, when she’s done, hand it back so I can say ‘no.’”
She took the phone and rolled her eyes at me. Then she seemed to get really intense and made a few deep “Uh, huh” noises, trying to imitate me. Emma got really excited and squealed and handed the phone back to me. I’d never seen her this excited about anything.
“Hey, what got Emma so excited?” I asked.
“You’re a jerk. I was telling her that you’ve been asked to read for a role in an upcoming movie.”
“Oh, cool. When and where?” I asked.
Lori Winnick had told me about the movie this winter. I had never done anything like this before. I wouldn’t expect them to just hand the role to me.
“We’re scheduled for Sunday morning at eleven, in Chicago. I’ll pick you up at seven-thirty so we have plenty of time. I’ll get you the script for your section, and email it over so you can learn your lines.”
That was the part I was worried about, learning my lines. I had never done anything like that, but what the heck, I’d give it a shot. Kendal and I wrapped up our call, and I turned to find the table staring at me. Emma must have filled them in.
What followed was an epic inquisition. Of course, I didn’t have any answers. I could tell this was getting out of hand. So, I sent a tweet to slow everything down.
‘Been asked to read for a movie role. No more info @ this time.’
Why that didn’t work, I have no idea. I probably should have talked to Lily first.
“WHAT THE HELL?! STOP!” I yelled.
I was in the training room getting ready for practice. Paige looked pissed at me. My yelling had Jill and Becky running out of their offices. Paige was in the process of putting on my back pads. Instead of using the pre-wrap, Paige had just started to put the regular tape on. There was a reason you use the pre-wrap: it kept the tape from sticking to your skin.
It didn’t help that the two trainers had started laughing when they saw what had happened. Paige finally figured it out and was embarrassed. The good news was she only got my left side with one strip of tape. Becky walked up and had me lift my arm. Then the evil bitch ripped it off. I confess my mom wouldn’t be proud of the names I called her. For some reason, they all thought it was funny. My sympathy goes out to women who wax.
Paige was transformed into my hero at that point. She got some spray that numbed me; then she got me ready for practice. It was getting to be quite the chore to get ready now. Besides the pads put on my back, I had to get both ankles and my left wrist taped.
In practice, I was feeling good. I still felt a twinge when I threw deep. I could do it, but I didn’t want to have to do too many long balls on Friday.
Friday October 10
A COLD FRONT HAD PUSHED its way in during the day, and the temperature had been dropping. This morning when I went to school, it was seventy; but just before kickoff, it was down to fifty-five, and there was a slight drizzle. It was going to be miserable, playing tonight.
Mt. Vernon was in our conference and they were 3–3 coming into tonight’s game. We currently stood at 5–1. On paper, we should win this game handily, but Mt. Vernon always found a way to play us tough. Tim and I stood at the edge of the field, waiting for Coach to lead us out. At his signal, we ran between the cheerleaders to our sideline. The Booster Club had gotten cowbells for the parents so you could hear them ringing while the band played our school song.
When Tim and I went out for the coin flip, we weren’t feeling the cold. Mt. Vernon was all in dark green.
“New uniforms?” I asked as we shook hands.
“We wear them for special occasions, like beating you,” their quarterback told me.
“You better go change,” Tim told them.
“Settle down,” the ref told us. “Mt. Vernon, you’re the visitor so you’ll be calling the toss. This is heads and this is tails,” the ref told us as he showed us the coin.
He then flipped it and Mt. Vernon called ‘tails.’ It came up tails. They decided to defer to the second half, so we took the ball. They had pulled me off special teams and defense until I was 100%, so I watched as our kickoff return team brought it out to the 18 yard line.
Coach Diamond had called the first three plays, so we ran out and lined up as soon as the ball was spotted. We were in the shotgun with a back on each side of me. The power was to the left of the formation since that was where Wolf was lined up at tight end. Mt. Vernon was rushing out on the field to get set, so I wasn’t sure what defense they were in. Their basic set was a five-three. That was where they had five down linemen and three linebackers, leaving just three defensive backs. It was geared to stop the run. I’d assumed that was what they’d be in.
“Down, Set ... Hut, HUT!”
We were running the option left to our power. I put the ball in Bert’s replacement’s belly and saw he was going to go nowhere, so I pulled the ball out and made my next read, the defensive end. He was in no-mans-land, playing the pitch. I made a jab step like I was going to pitch to Jake, and used it to plant and turn upfield. One of the middle linebackers caught me after a four yard gain.
We lined up in the same formation except we flipped it because the ball was now on the left hash mark. Mt. Vernon was in their set defense with eight men in the box.
“Down, Set ... Hut, HUT!”
We went option right this time. Mt. Vernon was determined to shut down the inside, and I pulled the ball from the fullback again. The defensive end on this side forced me to pitch to Jake. Wolf made a nice block on the linebacker on this side, and Jeff had a block on the cornerback. Jake was set up for a nice gain when the cornerback made a heck of a play, shedding Jeff’s block and making the tackle, and only giving up three yards. It was now third and three.