Junior Year Box Set

Dad looked at Mom, and they both nodded.

“I think that’s exactly what I meant,” Dad said.

I was smiling inside but didn’t need to encourage my parents. I simply nodded and ate my breakfast.

◊◊◊

When I parked my Jeep in the student parking lot, I took a moment to collect myself. My parents were crazy if they thought I wouldn’t talk to Pam. I was about to get out of my car when my phone rang. It was Frank Ingram, my PR agent. It must be the crack of dawn in LA. I wondered what would have gotten him up this early.

“Frank.”

“David, I wanted to catch you before you got your day started. I worked with Range Sports, and we have a couple of video packets that we’ll be releasing later today. I wanted you to be aware in case you had any press requests.”

“Can you send them to me?” I asked.

“Of course. If you do get any calls from the media, be sure to call me first, so we’re on the same page.”

“Why don’t you put together some talking points for me?” I suggested.

He laughed.

“I thought I was going to get to teach you about that,” Frank said. “I should’ve known you would already know about our dirty little secret.”

“Hey, before you go, there’s something you need to know,” I said, and then told him about Pam.

“I’ll be out on a flight later today,” Frank said, which made me nervous. “Don’t talk to anyone in the media until I get there.”

“Don’t you think you’re overreacting? High school kids have accidents all the time.”

“David, this is what you pay me for. You should’ve called me last night when you found out. This is the sort of situation that can cause you serious trouble if it isn’t handled correctly. All it’ll take is some bad press to snowball into a complete mess,” he said.

“I was planning to talk to Pam this morning and get this straightened out. I’m sure her dad’s rape charge is just him being a drama queen.”

“The problem is you have to take it deadly serious! Regular people have their lives ruined over something just like this. Let’s nip this in the bud before it gets out of hand.”

When I finally hung up, I was late for class and missed my chance to talk to Pam.

◊◊◊

I forwarded the videos to Brook, Halle, and Zoe. I probably should have viewed the videos first, but I was in a hurry to get to PE. Coach Diamond seemed to be harder on football players when they were late than he was on anyone else. He explained that we were supposed to show leadership. It was just as well that I hadn’t done my full run this morning, because I got sent out to run for the full hour. I vowed not to get pissed and instead to look at the bright side. At least I was able to get my run in today.

My next class was AP Trig. Zoe gave me a weak smile, which I didn’t understand until Alan went into full bulldog mode.

“Does your mom know you almost died this weekend?”

“Yes, she was there.”

“And she let you come to school?”

“Yes, Alan. My mom thinks school is a good thing and that I should attend every now and then.”

“Does she know about you riding motorcycles?”

Mom did. What I didn’t understand was how Alan knew. Then I looked over at Zoe, and she turned her head away from me. Okay, that would explain how he found out about the wingboard. The only place I had the video for the motocross was in my cloud storage account. Then it came to me. Frank had asked for all my social media, picture and video storage passwords. I suddenly wondered what all was on the videos I sent the girls.

Alan was irritated, but I ignored him as I brought them up and played them. Of course, I hadn’t noticed that Pam Lowden, my teacher, had entered the room.

“David, if you’re watching videos, do you want to share with the class?”

“No, ma’am,” I said.

“Up front,” Ms. Lowden ordered.

I began to play it for her. It started out showing me play football and baseball.

“That’s you, right?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I think the whole class should see this. Is this for one of your ads?” Ms. Lowden asked.

“I’m not sure what they’ll use it for. I haven’t seen all of it yet.”

It was just raw footage without any music or voice-overs. It showed me getting creamed on the football field a few times. Then there was footage of me as I was beaned in a baseball game. The next scene showed me as I made one of my colossal motocross jumps. Someone had video of Cassidy as she kicked my ass at the dojo. The next scene showed the jet water board as it broke. I winced when I saw that one. That was followed by the wingboard incident. I felt a little bit like I might throw up when it showed me finally landing.