Junior Year Box Set

“The conference decided to do something different this year. They’ve named a Conference MVP, and that person is our very own David Dawson,” Coach said, and everyone began to clap.

I could tell the coaching staff had planned this little deception, and I decided there’d be payback at some point. Then Jim was called up front.

“We have some good news on the recruiting front: Jim Ball has accepted an offer to play for the Alabama Crimson Tide.”

Jeff tried to ambush me for an interview, but I hip-checked Jim in front of him. I wanted Jim to have his big moment.

◊◊◊

That afternoon we watched game film of Nazareth Academy, and I got an uneasy feeling in my stomach. They had two defensive ends who were undersized, but cat-quick. I watched as bigger, stronger offensive tackles were consistently beaten by these two terrors. It’s hard to run your offense if you have one, let alone two, defenders in your backfield and causing chaos. They’d lost three games to much larger schools but had been in all of them.

In a lot of ways, Nazareth reminded me of us last year. They were a tenacious group that never seemed to give up. The difference between last year and this, for us, was we now absolutely knew we would win, and we had a year of experience under our belts. We’d proven that we had the heart of a champion when we’d beaten King. That belief could carry you a long way and help you overcome any obstacle. That was why I knew we could overcome Nazareth Academy.

We only had today and tomorrow to practice, so the coaches took us out to the field. We ran around in shorts and t-shirts to walk through the plays we would focus on against our first opponent. I felt great because I’d had an extra day to recover. I’d needed it because of the pounding Todd had put on me.

When we were done, I felt we would be able to win against Nazareth without too much trouble. It would depend on how well we handled their defensive ends. If we couldn’t block them, it would be a long night for me. While I loved to create and avoid rushes, it wasn’t how you wanted to structure a game plan.

◊◊◊

After practice, Brook, Cassidy, and I drove to the dojo. In the school parking lot, I saw Yuri and Jan. It hadn’t taken him long to figure out that she could chauffeur him around. Cassidy and Brook played rock, paper, scissors to see who’d claim shotgun. I tossed Brook the keys when she won.

“You drive,” I said as I climbed into the back seat.

I had a message from Tyler to call her. She’d received my contract from Saul Gessler to be my acting agent. I’d gone with AT Modeling as my modeling representative in part because Tyler would be my entertainment lawyer and would review all of my modeling and acting contracts. Ms. Dixon was still on retainer for most anything else. If she couldn’t handle something, her firm was large enough to have whomever I might need for any particular facet of law. A good example would have been if the mess with Pam had dragged on and we would have gone to court. Then Ms. Dixon would have stepped aside, and a Family Law specialist would have stepped in. The great thing about it for Ms. Dixon was that her firm knew she was the one who’d brought me in as a client. As a result, she was in charge of my account.

I called Tyler’s number.

“AT Modeling, how may I direct your call?”

This was new.

“I need to speak to Tyler.”

“May I ask who is calling?”

“This is David Dawson. She left me a message and asked that I call her back.”

“One moment, please.”

I was put on hold and had to listen to bad classical music.

“David?” Tyler asked.

“Yes.”

“Sorry. We’ve recently grown, and we have new offices. I’m not used to the phone system yet.”

Tyler and Adrienne had run everything out of their condo. It sounded like their business must have picked up if they needed office space.

“I received the contract from the Gessler Agency, and it was your standard boilerplate contract that was designed to screw you,” Tyler said. “I want to rework it and give Mr. Gessler incentives in the form of bonuses if he can get you to certain levels of income. This way if he doesn’t work hard for you, then he isn’t into your pocket for much.

“I also talked to Kendal to get an idea of what your contract for the second and third movies in the Star Academy series was supposed to pay you. I want to exclude that income from the base amount because he didn’t do the work to get you that payday. If Mr. Gessler can make you more, then he’ll earn money from that,” Tyler explained.

“What if he gets aggressive and loses me those movies? He shouldn’t have an incentive to sabotage me just to get me into something different so he can get a payday.”

“I’ll have to give that some thought. I can understand your concerns.”

“What about Kendal? Do I owe her firm anything for the movies?” I asked.

“No, they didn’t complete the deal.”

I thought about that for a moment.

“Tyler, I’m not comfortable with that. I know I should just pocket the money, but she was a big help to me. So was Tom, for that matter.”