Junior Year Box Set

“I do think you’ll need money, though. Why don’t we go to the bank tomorrow and open an account for you? You can get a debit card.”

“Oh. You do know I was only teasing,” Pam said.

“Yes. It doesn’t change the fact that there’ll be things you’ll need. I don’t want you to worry about it. I’ll be here to help you in any way I can.”

“David.”

“Yes?”

“I’m so sorry.”

“I know,” I said.

“David.”

“Yes?”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I said.

“David.”

“Yes?”

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Pam,” I said and hung up.

◊◊◊ Monday November 2

This would be a huge week, football-wise. We would play King High School in Indianapolis in a nationally televised game on ESPN. Because the game would be played on a Thursday night, we would travel to Indianapolis on Wednesday and practice there. Bud Mason, my quarterback coach and the former offensive coordinator for the Oakland Raiders, would fly in today to help us get ready. I’d asked him several weeks ago if he would help our coaches put together a game plan that would give us a chance against King High School.

I had reason to worry about this game. King had been rated in the Top 25 nationally all year. I’d read the current ratings, and they had moved up to number 3. While we might be the best in our state, we didn’t have the depth of talent that you would find in some states. States like California, Florida, or Texas, who were at the top from a national perspective; or in, say, Ohio in the Midwest. King had a rich tradition of sending players to Division 1 colleges. This year’s team had eight seniors who had all received D-1 offers, compared to our one, Jim. They had one player, Todd Davis, who was rated five stars, which meant he was one of the top thirty or so players in the country. I’d met him on my visit to Notre Dame.

I was driving to school when my phone rang.

“Answer,” I said so my Bluetooth would have the Jeep connect to my phone.

“David, we have a problem,” Ms. Dixon said.

“What now?” I asked.

“Kendal handed me a phone this morning and wished me luck. I wasn’t sure what it was for, but it’s been going off all morning,” she said.

Well, shit. That would be the recruiting phone. After we fired Brandon, Kendal had gotten it back. I needed to do something with that because it would also be a big week recruiting-wise. No way did I want to pay Ms. Dixon to deal with it at her hourly rate. Maybe I could pay Lily more to help with that, too. I didn’t want to hand it back to Tracy, because she’d been worried it would be too much for her.

“For now, turn it off. I’ll ask my mom to swing by and pick it up. It’s my phone that’s used for football recruiting,” I explained.

“I’ve been reviewing everything Tom and Kendal do for you, and you’re going to have to hire some people to replace them. You need to hire a PA with a wide-ranging business background as a top priority. You also need an agent for the modeling side of the business. I talked to Tyler at AT Modeling, and they’re willing to take over that part of the business for you. Kendal told me you would prefer them over using Ford.”

Tyler was also an attorney. She would help me with the review of contracts. My only problem with her and AT was they wanted a premium to represent me. I would need to talk to them about à la carte services. In many cases, it would be cheaper to pay Tyler by the hour than give them a percentage off the top.

All this was happening too fast. I relied on Tom and Kendal for almost everything, business-wise.

“I’m pulling into school. If you need anything, call my dad. I have to go, but I want to thank you for all you’ve done.”

“No problem. Talk to you later,” Ms. Dixon said and hung up.

I parked the Jeep and found Alan had waited for me; I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. He saw my look and held up his hands.

“Don’t get mad. Tami called me and told me you planned to work things out with Pam and all the lawyers yesterday. I’ve been sent to find out if everything went okay.”

This was a very different Alan. He seemed much more restrained and even admitted that he’d agreed to be Tami’s pawn. I tried not to be too hard on him because we’d been friends since kindergarten.

“You can tell Tami everything’s fine,” I said.

“So the baby’s yours?” he asked.

This was the Alan I knew.

“Yes, the baby’s mine,” I said.

“Wow. Does Pam plan to keep it?” Alan asked and then blanched when he saw my expression.

It was hard to believe Alan would even suggest anything of the sort if he knew me at all. I took a deep breath because I could tell I had overreacted with him. I still wasn’t over what had happened.

“Alan, this is between Pam and me,” I said.

Alan looked stunned. I didn’t know why, so I just nodded and walked towards the front entrance. A cold snap had come through after the rain, so no one remained outside.

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