“While our government needs to lead the charge, there are organizations in California working to help these people. To that end, I would ask that you all also give to my charities,” David said.
He pulled out his phone and air-bombed every device in the room with a link to a donation website. Mr. Orange, the head of David’s charities, had quickly set it up when he called earlier. The link also allowed them to direct money to teen mothers and cancer families.
“I just sent you a special link for tonight’s event. While giving to my charities is tax-deductible, and I am sure you can all use the deductions, I also want you to give to USC Athletics. To that cause, my dad will match tonight’s donations dollar for dollar up to a hundred thousand in total,” David promised.
David added his dad because he wasn’t sure if he himself could also be a booster as an athlete. He would call his dad and have Megan write a check out of his corporate account.
Gabe came up and stood next to David.
“I’ll also match up to a hundred thousand given to David’s charities. They are well managed, and most of the money raised goes to the intended cause, unlike so many others. I’ll let you eat before I come back and twist your arms for more money for USC athletics. We have some exciting plans that you will want to be a part of.”
◊◊◊
After they ate, Coach Clayton spoke. The coach was an excellent public speaker. What concerned David was that his coach spent several minutes talking about how Matt was their QB1, even though he was suspended for the first game. He’d just announced to the world that David was QB2.
It was hard to keep his thoughts to himself, but he would only change Coach Clayton’s mind by showing him who the starting quarterback should be. To do that, he would have to seriously outplay Matt. Even if that happened, it might not get the job done.
After the public speakers, there was a final hour of networking before they left to go home.
◊◊◊
USC’s high school football camp started today. David had fond memories of when he attended and was disappointed that Coach Clayton hadn’t asked him to help.
He’d hired Coach Mason to coach his brother Phil. His brother had gone with his dad to San Francisco, where David’s old high school coach now lived. Coach Mason was a legend in coaching circles, having coached many years for the NFL’s Raiders. David had met him the summer before his junior year at an invitation-only camp in Houston, which David attended two years in a row.
So, when Phil asked for a personal coach for the summer, David immediately thought of the grizzled veteran. From what he’d heard, Phil was doing well and had barely missed out on being selected for the prestigious Elite 11 competition.
Speaking of which, Colt Macklin, who had won the competition this year, was also coming today. David had invited all three to lunch at his condo.
David came down for breakfast to find Rosy had made huevos rancheros. Cassidy was begging for the recipe as she raved over the dish. Dare and Corvus were busy stuffing their faces. David could see that his decision to borrow his mom’s chef for the day was already paying dividends.
“What? No tamales?” David mock-complained while adding both a chin quiver and puppy-dog eyes.
“Dude, you snooze, you lose,” Dare chirped.
Rosie opened the oven, and David saw that she’d saved him a couple.
“This is why I love you,” David said, giving her a one-armed hug as she handed him the warm plate. Then he frowned. “What? You’re not going to serve me?”
“I never put enough on your plate,” Rosy said with a smile.
While David assembled his dish, Rosie made him two eggs over easy and slid them on top when he was done.
“What are you making for lunch?” Cassidy asked.
“She won’t tell you,” David predicted.
“Stuffed poblanos, grilled corn on the cob with lime butter, chicken mole, and sweet orange tamales for dessert,” Rosy said.
“Can I help make it?” Cassidy asked.
“You have class, young lady,” David said in his best dad’s voice.
Ruth just chuckled when Cassidy punched him in the chest. It looked like his little ninja had corrupted his security.
“What are you two brainiacs doing today?” David asked.
“We think we’re a step closer to solving our asynchronous parallel processing problem that’s been bottlenecking the rendering time for the derived video presentations. Our hope is that we can make the VR work in near real-time. If we figure that out, Corvus said it might be useful for officials’ reviews, whatever that means,” Dare said.
David’s imagination ran wild. The biggest problem with football play reviews was that the camera angle sometimes didn’t give you a clear look. An example was whether and where someone stepped out of bounds or whether the football had actually crossed the first down marker or goal line. With the combination of VR and chips in the ball, those reviews could be decided in seconds instead of the long-drawn-out process that delayed games. This might be the next ‘big idea’ that his mentors were looking for.
“Keep me in the loop on that,” David said. Then he looked at both Dare and Corvus to make sure he had their attention. “That’s not an idle request. What you just said may open up both a new product line and a new potential market for us.”
He turned to Cassidy. “Come on, Buttercup. I’ll walk you to school.”
◊◊◊
David returned from class to find Colt and Cassidy in deep conversation in the living room. He could hear faint voices on the roof, where their lunch was going to be served. He wondered why the two of them were alone downstairs.
“Hey,” David said in greeting.
“You have to hear about the team-building activity Colt’s women’s volleyball team did this summer,” Cassidy said excitedly.
Colt smirked.
“A sexy scavenger hunt.”
David’s brain when in a dozen directions with that one. There was no telling how bad the college version might be.
“Tell him some of the tasks,” Cassidy prodded.
“They had two different games. One was for couples, and the other was for everyone on the team,” Colt said and then clarified. “My girlfriend is on the team.”
“The couples one sounds fun,” Cassidy jumped in, obviously thinking Colt was taking too long to explain. “They created a series of clues to lead their significant other to different locations. With each clue, a different letter of the alphabet went on the back of the card. When they gathered them all, it spelled out a sexy activity the couple would do.”
“My girlfriend was to give me a blowjob in her parents’ bedroom while they were home,” Colt explained.
“Last time I did something like that, I ended up getting punched by the girl’s dad,” David shared.
“Mine was close. All I will say is she should have swallowed,” Colt offered.
That caused a rare Cassidy giggle. Ninjas don’t giggle. Ever.
“What were some of the group activities?” David asked.
“They threw a kickoff party and did unnatural acts with foot-long hotdogs,” Colt said.
“I hate to ask,” Cassidy said.
“Stuff like who could get the most in their mouth, and then they tied them to a string, and the girls had to jump and see how much they could bite off.”
David cringed at the last one.
“They did the hunt for a week,” Colt continued. “The girls had to collect stuff like letterman’s jackets, men’s underwear, and other goofy items. My girlfriend was pissed when I gave my jacket to her best friend.”
“Stupid boys,” Cassidy mumbled.
“My favorite one was giving me a blowjob. The way it worked was that the first girl got a thousand points. They had a stupid rule that said I could only get one per day. There were some pissed-off girls when they found out that theirs didn’t count,” Colt said, chuckling.