Junior Year Box Set

I got up and let Duke out to mess around with Precious. While I stretched, I realized I felt relief that I’d decided who’d be my new manager. It might not be a done deal yet, but in my mind, it was.

My good thoughts were interrupted by a weird yowl from Precious, and then everything became quiet. That was never a good sign. I walked around the side of the garage and found the cat from hell hanging from Duke’s ear. It looked like her claws had become tangled, and she was stuck. When Duke saw me, he trotted over, much to the dismay of the entangled kitty.

“Shit!” hissed from in between my lips.

I had a bad feeling that Precious wouldn’t be cooperative. Taking a deep breath, I carefully lifted Precious so she wouldn’t be hanging off Duke. I discovered her claws weren’t actually in his ear, but on his neck. Labs have two layers of coat. The soft undercoat is weather-resistant and acts as an insulating layer that protects the dog from extreme cold and from getting wet. The dense, straight outer coat is coarse and reinforces the hair coat’s waterproof quality. Precious had gotten her claw hooked into his undercoat. It took me a moment to free her.

Precious was so grateful to be free that she clawed the shit out of me. She was lucky I had laid down my Bo staff, or there might have been one less kitty in the world. She was smart enough to run home. I was sure she would tell Brit all about how Duke and I had mistreated her. Every time I thought Precious and I had come to an uneasy truce, she pulled something like that. Next time she pissed Duke off and needed to be saved, I might be a little slow to come to her rescue.

◊◊◊

When I made it to school, Pam was out front waiting for me. She seemed nervous, so I gave her my full attention.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

She glanced around to make sure no one was listening to us.

“I’m getting fat,” she complained.

I swear, I tried.

“David!” she said, and her face scrunched up. “You can’t laugh at me.”

“I’m sorry,” I said and looked her in the eyes. “How can I help?”

“First, you can be supportive,” she huffed.

I thought the foot stomp was a little excessive.

“I know. You just caught me by surprise.”

“I need to buy new clothes.”

“That’s why I gave you the debit card,” I said, and then wondered. “Do you need more money put into the account?”

“No, but Mom said I couldn’t just spend your money without asking.”

“I gave you the debit card for exactly this kind of stuff. You don’t need to ask my permission to use it. If you want, I’ll call Lacy and tell her myself,” I offered.

“Would you go shopping with me?” she asked.

I had three thoughts fire through my head, none of them kind. Helping a girl shop for anything but sexy underwear or swimsuits was the last thing a teenage boy wanted to do. I couldn’t imagine anything that would be worse than being forced to shop for maternity clothes. Luckily, I remembered that Pam was my baby’s mama, and I might want her to talk to me again.

“I’d love to,” I said.

It was her turn to laugh, but she wasn’t about to let me off the hook.

“Good. You can pick me up at Tracy’s after you’re done at the dojo. Tracy said her mom would cook for you,” Pam said.

A meal cooked by Mary Dole might actually make this whole thing worthwhile. If I were lucky, the store would have a comfortable chair, and I could take a nap in it while Pam shopped. We hugged it out to confirm our plans. She grabbed my hand, and we walked to the front of the school. Alan saw us and clearly wanted to ask me about it, but he bit his lip and kept his mouth shut.

◊◊◊

In PE, I conned Coach Diamond into letting me get a massage. Jill wasn’t busy, so she obliged me. I think she liked to abuse my body, but I knew that the net result would do me wonders. Wolf came in and lay down on the table next to mine, and Becky began to work on him. He was such a wuss sometimes.

“If you take it like a man, you might get a happy ending,” I explained to him.

{Crack}

“Ow!” I complained. “That might leave a mark.”

Jill pulled down my shorts to check and see. Sure enough, there was a handprint on my left buttocks.

“You might have to rub it to make it better,” I suggested.

{Crack}

“Ow!”

She’d gotten the right side.

“He’s not very clever. You might have to spank his butt again to get his attention,” Wolf suggested.

Jill raised her hand again, and I bailed off the table.

“I wasn’t done with you, ‘stupid boy,’” Jill said.

“No, I’m all better,” I said and quickly left to go lift.

◊◊◊

The game film of Central showed a good, solid, well-coached team. They ran a base three-four (three linemen and four linebackers) defense. The key to this defense started at the nose tackle, who lined up over our center. He was a squat rock. His job was to make a huge pile in the middle. Their nose tackle was listed at five-ten and 285 pounds. He was surprisingly quick, and his short stature made it hard to root him out of position. His goal was to force you to double-team him, which would free up the two middle linebackers to run free.