Their reading for the next class was on a concept called
‘the just-world hypothesis.’ It declares that your preference for justice makes you presume it exists.
The point was that no matter how we wanted it to be, in the real world, people don’t always get what they deserve, hard work doesn’t always pay off, and injustice happens.
This bias leads people to believe stuff like ‘what goes around comes around,’ ‘tomorrow will be a better day,’ or an expectation of ‘karmic balance.’ In extreme cases, it could lead to blaming victims of crime and circumstance.
The conclusion was that a more just world requires understanding rather than blame. We should remember that everyone has their own life story, we’re all fallible, and bad things happen to good people.
◊◊◊
David saw that Crystal was done studying. When she looked over at him, he gave her a leer, got out of his chair, and rubbed his hands together.
“Now that I have found you, my precious, we shall never separate,” he said in a creepy voice.
Crystal squealed when he lunged for her.
“Oh, come on! It’s a school night,” Alex complained from the other room.
They both fell into bed in gales of giggles. Alex could go pound sand. Make-up sex was what made having a fight worthwhile.
◊◊◊
Chapter 28
“Welcome to Trojan Inquirer. To support our show, give us a follow because it really helps us out. Today, we have my fellow USC quarterback, Matt Long, as our guest,”
David said.
He’d thought long and hard about how to show Matt that he was okay with their situation. Yes, Matt had been a jackass and tried to get him killed in the spring. And, yes, Matt felt like David had taken his girlfriend away from him.
But in the last few weeks, they’d begun to learn to coexist.
That was when Tracy had told him she’d lined up … well, no one. David decided he might want to take a more active role in their guest invites moving forward. That was when he scrambled this morning, saw Matt working out with Tank, and asked him to be on the show.
“Matt’s been cleared of his injuries, and Coach Merritt has named him the starter for this week’s opponent, Utah,”
Tracy said. “How are you doing physically?”
“Good,” was Matt’s one-word answer.
David inwardly cringed. Tracy would kill him if Matt didn’t open up and talk.
“This is a huge weekend for the Pac-12 South, with Utah considered the favorite, but USC controls their own destiny, being one game up on the Utes. How do you see it playing out Saturday?” Tracy asked.
“We’ll win.”
David was encouraged. Matt had actually said two words this time. Tracy looked at him to see if he wanted to jump in and question Matt. David leaned back and gave her a blank look. He would pay for that later, but he was starting to enjoy this.
“How do you plan to win?” Tracy tried.
“By scoring more points than they do.”
If David didn’t know better, he would think Matt was punking her. When Coach Merritt had heard about the interview, he’d told Matt he would bench him if he gave Utah any poster material to fire them up for their game.
Coach had also not allowed Matt to talk about his injury or anything else that might help their opponent. David should probably have mentioned that to Tracy. He also thought Matt was a wimp for going to Coach to ask permission to be on David’s show.
“USC’s ground game was tepid at best last week. What will you do to improve that against Utah?” Tracy asked.
“Execute better.”
Before Tracy killed them both, David jumped in.
“How do you like playing quarterback for USC?”
“This is my dream school …”
It didn’t take long for Tracy to figure out that Matt would shut down whenever she asked about Utah. Anything else, he became a dream guest. David even learned that Matt had a Lab named Darcy and drank Mountain Dew.
Those two things made him like Matt a bit more.
◊◊◊
When David arrived for practice, he had a note to go see Bryant, their recruiting coordinator.
He was disappointed to see that Rachel wasn’t working today. It was the new guy who gave David some side-eye.
David knew the new guy had a crush on his workmate, so he let the dirty look go for now.
David found Bryant intently tapping out a message on his phone. Clearly, the man wasn’t up to speed on the two-thumb or swipe-to-type methods because he was using just his index finger to jab at the screen.
“Give me a second. I need to send out four more of these before I forget.”
“What are you doing?” David asked.
“Commenting on social media posts some of our recruits have put out. I seem to spend half my time doing stuff like that.”
“Why don’t you have Rachel do it for you? Most of the time, when she’s out front, she’s bored out of her mind. I have someone do mine,” David suggested.
“But …”
“Plus, she’s probably a lot more relatable on social media than you are,” David said as his eyebrows rose in obvious amusement at his coach’s plight.
Bryant scowled, but David could tell that Rachel would soon have a new job.
“So, what do you need?” David asked.
“Oh, yeah. I wanted to tell you that both Damion and EZ
verbally committed.”
“You’re starting to put together a great class.”
“And we’re not done,” Bryant said. “Your brother is coming for the Arizona State game with Rockefeller ….”
“Roc. He hates his full name,” David interrupted.
“Roc,” Bryant said and then pressed his lips together. “I would think he’d get bullied with a name like Roc.”
“Trust me, it’s better than Rockefeller.”
“Anyway, I was hoping you and Bill could act as hosts since you both know them.”
David chuckled because Phil was his brother. He hoped he knew Phil well enough to be his USC guy for the visit.
Then again … maybe Phil would prefer someone else.
“Bill will be fine with Roc, but I don’t think they know each other; Bill graduated before Roc started at Lincoln.
And I suggest you ask Phil. Maybe he would rather Jaden or Matt be his host. He might feel less pressure to come here from them,” David reflected.
“He asked for you.”
“Then, I would love to,” David said, then pointed at the coach’s cell phone. “Seriously, have Rachel do that for you.”
◊◊◊
David was on his way to the locker room again when his phone rang, and it was Lexi.
“Hey,” David answered.
“I called to gloat and give you something to think about.”
He couldn’t think what she would be calling to gloat about unless it had something to do with her raising money for charities.
“Gloat away.”
“I received a link to the monthly magazine from UCLA.
According to one of the articles, they’ve been working on an interesting project that helps identify people before they become homeless,” Lexi said.
Lexi had made the foolish decision to enroll at UCLA for a semester. She never let an opportunity go by for her to point out something UCLA did that was better than USC.
“Tell me about it,” David said sincerely.
“I’ve been doing some research, and with the ranks of homeless people growing faster than housing is being built, one of the most popular strategies for reducing homelessness is to simply keep people in their homes. In theory, a small infusion of cash, counseling, or legal aid could be the difference that prevents someone from ending up on the street.”