“The other benefit is my health. The offensive line next year will all be first-year starters. My guess is that Coach Hope will play as many seniors as he can. If that’s the case, the line’ll be suspect at best. My best shot at winning state is my junior and senior years.”
That seemed to calm Bo down. He had a schedule of seven-on-seven tournaments for the spring, and he told me that Coach Hope had told him that Lincoln didn’t have a team. Bo suggested I put one together.
He then had me get out my binders. One of the sections was on seven-on-seven plays. The rules are a little different from regular football. There are no kickoffs or punts. Each team starts on the 45 yard line. To get a first down you have to go fifteen yards, and the quarterback only has four seconds to throw the ball.
The nearest indoor facility big enough for practice was at State. I would need to figure out how to get practice time. We could do walk-throughs in the high school gym, but it wouldn’t work for anything else.
It felt good to start thinking about football again.
That reminded me that I wanted to start working on baseball. Tami was pushing me to pitch. If I planned to pull that off, I needed some time to work on it.
Chapter 3 – Sixty Minutes of Hell
Monday January 13
I MET CASSIDY AT OUR locker before school. I couldn’t quite seem to figure her out. Why did she need her brother to help her last week? She could obviously take care of herself. And why did she set me up with April? I mean, April was a nice girl and all, but I was starting to wonder if she was worth all the work since there wasn’t a spark there. Not that April wasn’t a great girl, she was. I just didn’t have the same feelings I had for other girls I knew.
I could be dating Peggy right now. Worst case would be my friends network. Suzanne, Beth and Cindy would be more than happy to go out with me. If I really wanted to be a bad boy, there was Lisa Felton. Now that sounded like a plan.
“Hey, can I talk to you?” I asked.
“Sure, what’s up, Buddy?”
I was her ‘buddy’ now. This girl blew with the wind. The funny thing was, I found I liked her because of it.
“If you could handle your brother so easily Saturday night, why did you need him to back you up when you found me in our locker last week?”
She gave me one of those looks. Do girls go to classes to learn that look?
“Because of the rules, of course.”
I just stared at her. Was it just me, or was she a little whacky? She decided to help me out.
“When I learned self-defense, Dad made me promise to use it only to protect myself or my friends.”
I thought about that revelation for a moment.
“So, Brad didn’t make the same promise?” I asked.
“He did, but he can’t follow the rules.”
She said that as if it was an absolute given. I wondered why, but decided to just let that one go, for now.
She cocked her head.
“Would you like to learn self-defense?”
I knew that at some point I would get into a fight. Too much was going on in my life not to expect that someone would want a piece of me. I was a little surprised I had only been in two fights this year. The first fight was with Bill, and the other with Luke and Ed.
“Yes, I think I would.”
She gave me a big smile.
“Then meet me after school in the gym, and we’ll begin.”
The first bell rang. I grabbed my books and went to my math class, wondering what I had just gotten myself into.
LUNCH WAS INTERESTING. Cassidy caught me at our locker. She had plans.
“You’re eating lunch with my friends today.”
I arched my eyebrows.
“What about my friends?”
“They can join us,” she said in a matter-of-fact way. “I think that would be a good idea. Your friends need to meet April and her friends.”
Hang on. April and I had gone on exactly one date. I liked her okay, but I wasn’t sure we were at the point I wanted to subject her to my friends.
“Slow down, Speed Racer, April and I are just getting to know each other.”
She waved her hand in dismissal.
“Exactly. You’re just getting to know each other. She needs to meet your friends and find out that you aren’t just on the make with her.”
“Hey! I haven’t even made a move on her. Did she say something?”
“Tami’s right, you are a ‘stupid boy.’”
WTF! Tami amazed me at her ability to find out what’s going on. Cassidy was a handful. I didn’t need her and Tami ganging up on me. I just followed Cassidy to lunch. She and Gina organized everyone. We ended up taking up three long tables. The freshman girls were distributed randomly within my group. I about shit when Cassidy put April on one side of me, and Tracy on the other.
Cassidy leaned in and whispered in my ear.
“You make nice to Tracy. You two were very close, and you don’t need to lose her friendship.”
I just glared at her, but her look said she’d kick my butt if I defied her. After watching Brad get choked out Saturday night, I had a new respect for little Cassidy.
I looked around and Luke was nowhere to be found.
“Where’s your boyfriend?” I asked Tracy, trying to make small talk.
She seemed shocked that I was talking to her, after Friday night.
“We broke up.”
“Sorry, I didn’t know.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Tracy said. Then she looked over at April. “Hi, I’m Tracy. I’m David’s ex. You must be April.”
I sagged. I needed to kill Cassidy. The last person I wanted being April’s friend was Tracy.
“Hi, I’m glad to meet you. Are you okay with me dating David?”
“Yeah, I messed up. I need time to work on me. I know David loves me, but I’ve done some horrible things to him. I hope you can make him happy. He’s a great guy.”
I was a little taken aback. I couldn’t just turn off my emotions for Tracy. I also couldn’t allow her to hurt me again. If there weren’t some feelings left, I would never have reacted the way I did Friday night. The girls continued to talk as if I wasn’t there. Gina gave me a tight smile because she could see I was uncomfortable. She indicated with her head that I was to follow her. She got up and I excused myself.
Gina walked me out of the cafeteria into the hall.
“Are you okay?”
“Not really. Tracy still has a hold over me that I can’t explain. I just can’t seem to shake it, even though I know that I have to.”
“Are you dating April?”
I knew that Gina took everything in absolute terms. I also knew this would get back to Kara.
“I’m getting to know her. We went to Cassidy’s party on Saturday night,” I explained. “I think I like her, but we aren’t ‘dating.’”
She gave me a look that I couldn’t read. She seemed to come to a decision.
“Do you want my advice?”
What? A woman asking before just giving it to you? Of course, I needed advice; I was a guy.
“Yes.”
“I personally think April’s a good match for you. My only concern is whether she’s ready for you.” She paused to let that sink in before she continued. “You have several close friends. You also jet off and spend time with my sister and other very good-looking women. I’m afraid she’ll not have the self-confidence to deal with all that, plus the media.”
“I know, and that’s why I’m taking it slow. Cassidy has it in her head that we’re going out. I swear she’s like a bull in a china shop. I just hope she doesn’t break April.”
Gina snorted.
“You do attract the strange ones. Speaking of which, Lisa Felton has put the word out that she’s gonna rock your world.”
I groaned. Gina whacked my arm.
“What is it with that girl? Alan shudders when I mention her name. What makes her so damned attractive?”
I raised my eyebrows. Little Alan had the balls to show interest in another girl with Gina around? I’d been out of the loop too long.