“What the hell?!”
Girls had signed my chest like they would a cast.
“I take it you don’t remember letting the girls on the floor sign your chest and have their picture taken?” Suzanne surmised.
“Oh, crap, I got really drunk. I was supposed to watch out for the guys last night.”
“Don’t worry. We know where most of them are,” she teased me.
“I don’t think losing only one or two is considered good.”
“Don’t worry. We know who they were with. We can find them,” Suzanne said. Then she got an evil glint in her eye. “You were a bad boy last night. I came back to my room with my date to find you and Lydia going at it like crazed animals. I think you scared my date off. When Lydia collapsed, you stood up in all your glory and yelled ‘next!’”
“Don’t even tease about that,” I begged.
“That was when you let the floor sign your body. You insisted that they find permanent ink because you wanted to remember last night. I tried to talk you out of it, but you were having too much fun.”
“Tell me I didn’t go have sex with a bunch of girls.”
I think Suzanne took pity on me.
“No, I talked you back into the room, and you crawled into bed with Lydia and fell asleep.”
Suzanne finally got me up and led me to the shower. She had rubbing alcohol and a washcloth. On our way to the shower, I met a girl heading to the bathroom as well. She seemed to know who I was. I was never going to Northwestern again. It took Suzanne forever to get all the ink off me.
Northwestern had arranged for all the recruits and their families to have breakfast at ten. That gave me time to track everyone down and get them moving. We showed up as a group, on time. Suzanne, the chicken, didn’t want to face her parents with us all hungover. The parents had varied reactions. At first, it looked like we were all going to be grounded for life until my mom stepped in. She chose to torment us.
“Jim, you need to get some of that greasy bacon. Jake, get your eggs sunny-side up. The runny yolks are good for you ...”
She had most of us excusing ourselves and dry heaving. I manned up and asked for seconds. The other parents soon joined in to make our lives miserable. The guys and Cassidy all agreed to never talk about the weekend ... ever. That was all fine and dandy until my mom grabbed my phone. I didn’t think too much of it until she found the pictures from last night. She now had enough dirt on everyone for the rest of our lives. Someone had used my phone to capture the highlights.
Let’s just say it looked like we had a good time. Our parents all started to reminisce about the trouble they’d gotten up to at our age. It turned out to be a great bonding experience. I was much closer to everyone after that weekend.
Chapter 11 – Music Video
Monday October 20
I was dreading this week. It was Homecoming, and Eve Holliday would be back to shoot her video for Hometown Hero. I was still not happy about her ‘breakup song,’ as it made me look as though I’d cheated on her. I had told Kendal that I would help her any way I could, and that promise was about to be called in. They were supposed to meet me at the park this morning, and follow me on a run.
I grabbed some running clothes and made sure I had on my Range Sports gear. I went out, stretched, and then ran to the park. I was met by a cameraman and the director, Mr. Lester. He laid out the shoot sequence.
“At the beginning of the video, we’re going to show you running in four different locations. This morning will be here in the park. We’ll do one downtown, one on Eve’s farm, and another down a country road. The idea is a short video of you working alone to get ready for the big game. Then there will be some shots of the crowd arriving. We’ve worked it out with Fox High School Sports to make this the game of the week. We plan to use their video to show the game sequences.”
They had me run down one of the running trails. It was the perfect fall morning. The trees were all in color, and I could see my breath as I ran. I loved this time of year. There was a faint smell of smoke; someone was burning their leaves. Mr. Lester had me put my hood up so they would just catch a glimpse of my face as I ran. They shot me from three different angles with the direction to ignore the cameras. This guy was good ... okay, that was a little sarcasm.
WHEN I GOT TO SCHOOL, Peggy was waiting for me.
“So, do I even want to know what happened this weekend?” Peggy asked.
“I got really drunk for the first time in almost a year and a half. Actually, all the guys got drunk. They had beer bongs and this cinnamon schnapps-like drink with gold flecks in it. Let’s just say that if I hadn’t seen the pictures ... shit. Tell me you didn’t hear that,” I said, shaking my head that I was so stupid as to mention the pictures.
Mom had deleted all the truly bad ones before she’d let the other parents see them. I was sure Peggy would understand me letting off a little steam. She reached out her hand, and I gave her my phone.
“We made a pact that we wouldn’t tell anyone what happened this weekend,” I explained.
“Good thing you aren’t telling me, but showing me.”
Peggy flipped through the pictures until she got to the one with all the signatures on my chest. She pointed at it, and I rolled my eyes. She just giggled. I was sure her imagination wasn’t going to be worse than what really happened. She gave me a hip-check and then handed me back my phone.
“Next time, I want to go. You guys looked like you had a lot of fun.”
“I don’t think so, Princess. You wouldn’t be able to handle all of this,” I teased her.
She grabbed my ear and pulled me down into a kiss. I looked up and Mr. Lester and his cameraman were filming us. Where had they come from? I stalked over because I knew Peggy had no desire to be caught on film.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Following you around for the rest of the week. We cleared it through Angel,” he told me.
Angel was Eve’s agent, so I called mine, Kendal.
“Good morning,” answered a chipper Kendal.
“Did you know that I have a camera crew following me around?” I asked.
“David, is that you?”
“Yes, it is. Did you know?”
She made some weak crackling noises.
“David, I think I’m losing you. Did you ask ...?”
She was so dead. She hung up on me. I would never give her a free pass again. The bad part was I didn’t think I was even getting paid to put up with this. I just motioned for my new shadows to follow me. Peggy had gotten smart and disappeared. I headed to physical therapy.
PAIGE AND BECKY WERE waiting for me. My back was starting to look much better; it had that sickly yellow look that a bruise has before it completely heals. The cameraman got some good shots of the two trainers working me over. Paige was put in charge of rubbing me down, while Becky went and worked on Ed.
When I got done, I found Wolf, and we did our upper-body routine. I noticed a mark on his neck.
“Is that a hickey?” I asked.
“Shhh! Remember, ‘what happens in Evanston, stays in Evanston,’” he misquoted at me.
“I was so drunk I missed most of it. Then the parents were around. So, what happened?” I asked.
“I think the Northwestern football players love you. They started hitting on our dates, so you told them that you’d get them dates, too. You went down the street, found an apartment complex and started knocking on doors,” he told me.
“Hang on, how do you know what I was doing?”
“Are you kidding me? I wasn’t missing that for anything. I think half the party followed you. The first place we went to there was this slightly overweight girl with thick glasses that answered the door. I was expecting you to pull the old ‘wrong place’ and move on, but you asked her why she wasn’t out on a Saturday night. It took some convincing because you were drunk off your butt, but she agreed to come.