“It was good that you did invite her. Because of her, you talked almost every girl in that complex into going with you to the party. You are the Pied Piper of girls. When you came back with like twenty girls, the college guys left our dates alone,” he explained.
“Anything else happen?”
“You about got in a fight with Mike. He had this hot girl, and you stopped and did a double take. You gave her a big smile and said, ‘How you doing?’ Jim smacked you in the back of the head and told you that Mike was with her. I think he’d gone to the can. He came out and looked pissed. You just hugged him and went to find your date.”
“I’ll have to apologize,” I said.
“Don’t worry about it. I think Mike got lucky and has forgotten. I do have one question: I saw the pictures of your chest covered in signatures. How did that happen?”
I shook my head. I figured I could get away with playing dumb.
“I wish I knew. Suzanne said her dorm floor signed me. It took her forever to get the permanent marker off me,” I said, and saw his look. “Remember our agreement!”
When we were done, we went and ran a little. Wolf told me more jokes that his dad and uncle told him about Riverside. We were playing them this Friday.
IN MATH, WE HAD A POP quiz. I did something completely out of character: I bombed it. I should have studied Sunday, but I was half hungover all day long. I’d just wanted to lie on my couch and watch Sunday night football, so I watched the 49ers and Denver. I fell asleep during the first quarter. Luckily for me, they allow us to throw out one pop quiz score from our grade. I needed to get my act together!
AT LUNCH, MR. LESTER went up a couple of notches in my book. He had ordered Monical’s pizza for my lunch crew.
“How did you know to get Monical’s?” I asked.
“Eve told me it was your favorite. She said to feed you and your friends.”
I suggested they grab a table and take a pizza with them because I knew these would be inhaled in no time. When the cheerleaders started to show up, they were giving me funny looks. I had sent them all texts to tell them that I had lunch for them. I didn’t want them buying lunch and then having to throw it away. I shook my head when they dug into the salads, and just grabbed a piece of pizza for myself.
I was a little surprised when they designated Maggie as their spokeswoman.
“I notice you have a video crew following you around. What’s up with that?”
“They’re shooting some b-roll footage for Eve ‘Country Girl’ Holliday’s music video,” I said, and saw that I’d confused them. “B-roll is footage they use for extra scenes that they cut into the main storyline of a picture. Have you ever seen a scene where a couple’s talking, and they’ll cut away to what the view is out the window? That’s ‘b-roll’ footage.”
I really wasn’t that smart about the business. Mr. Lester had told me what they were doing after I’d had to ask him what it was. The girls all looked at me like I was an alien that had been deposited in the lunchroom.
Ray saved me. He came and sat down. Someone forgot to give him the memo about lunch. Today they were having what they called ‘Salisbury Steak.’ I personally thought it came in a can; they slice it off, put gelatinous brown gravy over it, heat it to room temperature, and then serve it to us. I tossed him a paper plate and he gave me a huge grin.
“Thanks, man. I was getting queasy looking at what they’re serving today.”
Maggie just ignored Ray and continued with the interrogation. The good news was that Ray’s interruption had thrown her off her stride.
“What’s the song you’re doing the video for?” she asked.
I pulled out my tablet, went online, and found the song. I played it for everyone. I glanced over at Mr. Lester, and he was smiling. I guess he was getting what he wanted. I felt sorry for him because it was going to be a pain to get all the releases signed if they used the footage.
Ray then took one for the team and started talking about the girls’ vampire show. I just sat back and enjoyed my pizza.
WHEN I GOT TO PRACTICE, Jim was looking down. I sent Wolf over to talk to him. I knew if anyone could get him out of his funk, Wolf could. I was getting dressed and saw that Wolf didn’t look happy either. I decided I needed to find out what was going on. When I walked up, Jim gave me a weak smile.
“I need a date to Homecoming. Cassidy broke up with me.”
I took in a deep breath and then slowly let it out. I was afraid to ask, but I had to.
“How come?”
“On the ride home, she asked me if I wished I hadn’t invited her this weekend. I thought she was joking and told her it might have been fun to make out with a college girl.”
Both Wolf and I flinched. Then Wolf got a panicked look on his face. Cassidy had enough on all the guys that went to cause some major havoc with their girlfriends.
“Do you think ...” Wolf started, and Jim shook his head ‘no.’
Cassidy was many things, but she didn’t have a mean bone in her body. Well, she could kick your butt if you deserved it, but she’d never go out of her way to hurt the guys. Then I got worried. Did the guys deserve it for stepping out on their girlfriends? Crud.
“We may have a problem. Cassidy has a strong code of ethics. Do you think she’d feel obligated to talk to everyone’s girlfriends?”
Jim looked at me and then sagged. Double crud. I needed to talk to Cassidy, and now.
“Tell Coach I went to talk to Cassidy,” I told them.
I headed to the gym where they were getting ready to work out.
I motioned her over.
“Can one of the wrestlers lead the workout today?” I asked.
She went and put them in charge, and then walked with me out to my favorite thinking tree. I sat down, and she crawled onto my lap and started to cry. I felt like shit because I had been more worried about what she would say than I had been concerned about comforting my friend.
Something I had learned was that women need someone to listen to them. Cassidy didn’t need me to voice my opinion on whom I thought was right or wrong. If I did that, I was going to hurt one of them. I considered them both good friends and didn’t want to make things worse.
“You want to talk about it?” I asked, to get her talking.
I knew what I was in for, so I just listened. For such a strong woman, Cassidy had some typical teenage insecurities. I listened as she poured her heart out to me. She was afraid that Jim didn’t want to be tied down. I knew he cared for her deeply. I also knew they were both still in high school.
I ended up missing practice. Coach Hope found me under the tree, with his daughter sound asleep in my arms. She hadn’t really slept since we’d arrived back on Sunday. He pulled his car around, and I just stood up with her in my arms and carried her to their backseat. She woke up enough to give me a kiss on the cheek.
I found Jim as I went to talk to Moose and Coach Diamond. They knew what was going on, and spent half an hour giving me the highlights. Jim waited for me and I took him home for dinner. Mom took all of ten seconds to figure out what was wrong.
“Did Cassidy break up with you?” she asked Jim.
He wasn’t used to her direct approach, and just did his best impression of a deer in the headlights. I saved him.
“Yes. She thinks he wants to spread his wings. I think Cassidy also wants to do that,” I told Mom as Jim watched us.
“Do you think some time apart will do them good?” Mom asked, ignoring Jim.
“I don’t think Jim thinks so. Cassidy just needs some time.”