Junior Year Box Set

“But Dad, I will dare,” I said and saw the looks on my parents’ faces. “Look, I’m getting an opportunity most people never even dream of getting. Now is not the time for me to be cautious. I need to go for this. I understand what you’re saying about not believing the press clippings. Despite my success in football, I haven’t gone crazy yet.”

“We know you haven’t, but this feels different. I’m afraid my brother was right, and life is about to change for you. Look at how Rita James has to live. You might have to have security around you 24/7. They just caught some weirdo on her property. I want you to embrace the possibilities and succeed, but I want you to be safe, too. Plus, I don’t want you to go down the path of people like Craig Wild or Trip James,” Dad said.

Craig Wild was the star of my first movie and had grown up in the business. Both he and Halle’s brother had problems with drugs and alcohol.

I was nominated to make breakfast. We’d listed the two scripts that Rita pointed out, the Japanese sunglasses ad, and two others as possibles. I let Caryn call Saul and give him the news. He told her he’d get working on them.

◊◊◊

We had a one o’clock game today, and what had started out as flurries turned into real snow. By the time I arrived at school, we had three inches on the ground. Duke was a total spaz. He loved the snow, and I had chased him around in the backyard before the game. The good news was that it wasn’t really all that cold. It was currently thirty degrees, and the wind had stopped.

I’d eaten lunch at home, so I didn’t venture out to the hospitality tent today. Instead, I was a good boy. I got taped, put my earbuds in, and listened to rock music to get ready.

The managers ran around and switched out our cleats. Coach Hope felt we would need longer cleats in case the ground became slippery. I’d also broken out my football gloves and fanny pack with a hand warmer in it. I was ready when the coaches sent us out for warm-ups.

Central traveled well. Their side of the field was packed. It could also be that they’d never made it this far in the state playoffs before. Our fans seemed to be waiting for the last minute to take their seats because of the weather. I really didn’t blame them.

After warm-ups, we began to run our pregame drills. After I tossed a couple of balls to loosen up, I started to throw in earnest. Throwing with gloves on is different from with bare hands. You just didn’t get the same feel of the ball. I was sailing the ball and overthrowing my receivers.

“Dang it!” I yelled when I overthrew my fifth straight receiver.

I stepped back from the drill and let my backups get their turns while I got my head into the game. In my head, I ran through the steps Bo Harrington had taught me. Three-step drop; stay on my toes; get my base right; step towards my receiver as I threw; and my release point should be a couple inches in front of my front foot. The problem was my release point: I was letting go of the ball early.

I got back in the drill and focused on my mechanics. I drilled Wolf for good measure.

“Asshole!” he called.

“Wuss!” I shot back.

We were good.

◊◊◊

Central won the toss and elected to take the football to start the game. They had a big bruiser of a running back who slowly brought them down the field, three to four yards a clip. What amazed me was that we were putting the wood to him. Someone would wrap up his legs and then someone else would finish him off. I’d had that happen to me, and when you have no momentum to offset someone running up on you, that’s when you get pancaked. I flinched each time this kid ran the ball and started to worry that he might get hurt.

That’s when I spotted something.

“Coach, put me in for Jake. I can get us the ball,” I said.

Coach Zoon looked at me, and I took that as assent. I sprinted out onto the field and told Jake to go back to the sideline. The coaches were yelling at me, so I made it a point not to look over at them. Hopefully, they wouldn’t call time out and force the issue.

I missed playing linebacker. I lined up next to Yuri, with Johan and his brother Milo in front of us. Central ran the same play. Milo grabbed one of his tree trunks of a leg to slow him down. Their running back twisted to put his body between me and the ball. I saw him prepare to take the hit, but I stepped to the side and snatched the ball out of his grasp. He would lower his shoulder to the oncoming tackler, and the ball in his hand would separate from his body. We were trained to protect the ball by tucking it hard against our torso and to have two hands on it if at all possible.

I ran right past the quarterback as he executed his fake. It seemed everyone was stunned for a moment as I sprinted the forty yards for the score. I handed the ball to the referee and jogged to the sidelines. Coach Zoon met me, and I winced for a moment, but he picked me up in a big bear hug and about snapped my back in celebration.

“If you ever do that again …” he began when he put me down.

“Yes, sir.”